Jul 137 min read

Lessons from the Rewari blast! (second update)

Why it matters: Factory accidents, terrible ones like this, ought to be studied and lessons drawn. Not only for the human loss but for Indian manufacturing professionalism and the need for serious improvement. Read on. Learn. Share. And feedback welcome.

A. Who is being held accountable? Finally an arrest per laws, albeit delayed.

On 16th March 2024, there was a blast in the dust collectors in the buffing department of the LifeLong India Pvt Ltd., a supplier to Hero Motors, and 39 workers were injured, of which since 19 have lost their lives. Our blog of 23rd March 2024 reported no arrests by then.

A FIR was filed on March 16th by one of the injured workers (name withheld). On May 19th, 62 days later, the factory’s maintenance manager and one other person arrested, for negligence of duty, since timely proper maintenance would have likely prevented the accident. Go deeper.

B. Enquiry revealed poor (and illegal) safety mechanism, maintenance and training.

Deputy Director, Industrial Safety and Health, Gurugram ‘s report on March 19, 2024 reportedly found the following

The key cause of the dust collectors exploding was the contamination by foreign body particles on the piece that was being buffed/felt polished which had caused sparks that travelled through the ducts to one of the dust collectors where the accumulation of combustible aluminium dust ignited and caused both dust collectors to catch fire and blast.
None of the workers were found to have been trained to carry out their tasks with safety or to identify potential problems and prevent accidents nor were any instructions given.
There was no mechanism to stop the spark from travelling or to restrict its movement, equipment for which is available.
The combustible aluminium dust in the dust collectors also had no safeguards to prevent such accidents
The work area was not insulated against dust and the lighting was not appropriate to detect sparks.
The report identified and named numerous violations under Sections of the Factory Act, 1948 and Punjab Factory Rules, 1952 including for not detecting foreign body contamination, for the dispensary in the factory not being upto the standards specified, for workers having worked longer than permitted under the weekly norms among others.
It was also noted that the equipment in the factory had been moved after the building plans received approval for a plan and the position of the dust collectors especially had not received approval.
There were no records available on the last time the ducts/pipelines and dust collectors were inspected.
There was no register of accidents and dangerous occurrences (near accidents/near misses).
Exits were not clearly marked, and no power backup was available.
31 of the 39 were migrants from Uttar Pradesh, 6 from Bihar and 1 came from East Delhi.
One of them was the Supervisor on duty, 20 were operators and 18, helpers.

13. All the workers received treatment in government hospitals including AIIMS, Delhi but none at the ESIC hospitals nearby despite all the workers being registered under ESIC

A catalogue of poor production management practices!

C. Outsourcing of the production after the accident – will anything change?

Possibly, to circumvent any regulatory hindrances, the buffing and fettling work at Life Long seems to have been since outsourced to a new entity, Incredible Manpower (who we believe is the manpower contractor, who had been providing the contractual workers to LifeLong.)

D. Thankfully, good (legally due) compensation offered by ESIC , company and the state government LWF to the dead. Though, what is the cost of a life?! and unclear compensation to the injured.

Two aggrieved worker families sought SII’s help to get their dues. They had this letter issued by the company listing the compensation that they would receive.

So far, both of them have received Rs. 22.5 lakhs – possibly from the money promised by the company apart from One Lakh that was given within a week, which may be later adjusted against Section D mentioned above.

The injured workers have received only Rs. 1.5 lakhs so far though they are unclear about whether they will receive more and when.

The ESI Dependents’ Benefit and EPFO pensions are yet to be approved and received.

We will continue to keep an eye on these and try ensuring all workers get their dues.

E. Was this accident preventable? Yes, and good practice for exactly this kind of problem has been defined by the ILO.

Online access to Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety by ILO shows this problem of contamination and sparking during grinding, buffing or polishing leading to fires is a clear and present danger.

“Fire: High standards of cleanliness and maintenance are required in all exhaust ducting to prevent risk of fire and also to keep ventilation working efficiently. Textile dust released from buffing operations is a fire hazard requiring good housekeeping and LEV.”

“Protective clothing and good sanitary and washing facilities with showers should be provided, and medical supervision is desirable, especially for metal grinders.” Go deeper.

In severe environments, such as those involving substantial manufacturing-process-raw-material particulate, workplace contamination control methods as under are considered mandatory.

A good contamination-avoidance program requires little to no capital outlay, and involves the cooperation of operators and maintainers, and is based on common sense but training and instructions on these processes and procedures are imperative. Good Housekeeping, cleanliness and safe storage and monitoring of the possible contaminants are the mainstay of preventing the same.

Aluminium Dust is Combustible and is a Known Explosion Hazard. During fabricating operations, aluminum fines are generated by such activities as grinding, polishing, sawing, cutting, sanding or scratch brushing and at least some of them will be fine enough to be potentially explosive.

In general, any particle that has a surface area to volume ratio greater than that of a 420 μm diameter sphere is considered a combustible dust. Finer particles burn readily when their ignition point is reached and tend to ignite the coarser particles as well and an explosion can result if ignition occurs while the particles are suspended in air as a dust cloud, since the burning extends from one particle to another with extreme speed. Explosion Proof/Dust Ignition Protected Vacuums are to be used to clear accumulation of such fines

F. This is not the only avoidable severe accident. Lessons need to be learnt and maintenance made a priority.

F.1 Haryana accidents

Just the state of Haryana has so far witnessed 27 deaths in 4 factory accidents in 2024 says a TOI article. Industrial Accidents: Haryana Industrial Accidents: 27 Deaths Since March | Gurgaon News - Times of India (indiatimes.com )

Apart from the Lifelong factory accident, it details a blast on June 21 in Daulatabad in Gurugram district and two others in Sonipat. In all cases the common thread is the workers alleging that maintenance was lax and that safety given the short shrift.

Two other cases that underline the poor practices of factories in many parts of the country are discussed below.

F.2 Maharashtra accidents

Workers in the Coating Unit at Accord Autocamp Pvt Ltd, Hinjewadi, Pune, set up their trolley with parts to be powder coated and transferred it to the gas furnace/oven to be baked, at around 10 am on 26th December, 2023 and the oven was turned on.

In the normal course, the oven would have reached the temperature of 220C in 40-45 minutes and automatically shut down with a siren whistle to mark the end.

On the fateful day, the temperature display stayed at 140C even after 90 minutes and suddenly there was a blast inside the oven leading to its bottom to fall out and flames emerge and engulf the adjacent store area. Around 20 workers in the vicinity got serious burn injuries and were admitted to various nearby hospitals.

The investigation into the incident by the Department of Industrial Safety and Health (ISH) found that the automatic shutoff that would stop gas from flowing to the burner once the temperature hits 220oC and the feedback system to monitor until that temperature is reached, both seem to have failed. The digital temperature controller was last calibrated on 13/08/23.

The investigation also found that the ionization cable that was part of the safety monitoring was damaged and unburned LPG gas passed through the nozzle but the burner did not stop, and the gas continued accumulating, until it ended as uncontrolled fire blasting through the bottom of the oven.

Four of the injured workers are being helped by SII. All of them have begun to get their Temporary Disability Benefit (TDB) but 2 of the workers were registered with ESIC only after they were hurt in the accident.

Accord Autocamp was founded in 2004 and are suppliers to Tata Motors and Cummins Ltd. among others. We could not find any records of criminal

investigations/imprisonments. The company has displayed awards that it received from its customers.

In another incident in Dombivli, Mumbai, the death toll from a chemical factory blast in Maharashtra’s Thane district was 10 after a boiler exploded at the Amudan Chemicals factory on May 20th, 2024, and the impact of the blast and the resultant blaze affected adjacent factories and houses, according to officials.

The blast caused an estimated loss of around Rs 13 crore, including a commercial loss of Rs 12 crore and residential loss of Rs 1.66 crore.

Police registered a case of culpable homicide against the owners, a director, administrator and other officials of the company.

A case was registered under sections 304, 324, 326, 285, 286, 427 and 34 of IPC. Investigations revealed that the boiler at Amudan Chemicals Private Limited was unregistered and used highly reactive peroxides.

An online video of the factory at the ET website showed the blast as seen from the CCTV. The factory does not inspire confidence that it is run professionally.

The Amudan Chemicals Factory

The moment of the blast.

In 2022, around 156 factories in Dombivli MIDC were found hazardous and extremely hazardous in the survey conducted by a joint team of the Labor Department, Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and MIDC. Owing to frequent accidents and pollution, it was decided to move them out to Patalganga MIDC. This study was done after there was a fire at Metropolitan Eximchem Private Limited (MEPL), a chemical company in Dombivli, which led to over 100 explosions and took 15 hours to extinguish the blaze. This has still not been implemented as per our information.

G. What next can we all do ?

While accidents may not be 100% preventable, most that are discussed here seem extremely preventable. What that seems to require is professionalism at work, empathy for workers, and a willingness to look beyond short term financial success and margins.

Workplace safety is not only a cost but an investment in the business and an indicator of how enlightened and progressive the owners and the management are.

When will Indian businesses learn to not cut corners and think longer term about sustainable growth that has workers’ interest and productivity included?

It’s not only us, a civil society organization, saying so. Several business experts believe the same, including Maruti-Suzuki: