In a fire incident yesterday in the afternoon hours, on the moving conveyor belt of a thermal plant where through which coal is transferred to crusher before using for heating, four persons died due to severe burns and six others received burn injuries. The employees working in the area spotted fire on the moving belt and rushed to extinguish. When the fire grew big uncontrollably, they tried to escape and jumped 25 m down on coal heaps.
It is not clear whether the conveyor belt was halted by pull-chord / emergency switch when it caught fire and whether there is regular cleaning of the conveyor belt and rollers system to clean the dust collected.
4 killed in thermal plant fire
LINK
Aug 16, 2012
Fire in a chemical godown
A fire occurred yesterday (15.08.2012) at about 1000 hr in a chemical godown that stored solvent drums. It is reported that nobody was injured. However, 150 tins of solvents and thinners stored in ground and first first floor were gutted. The compound wall and first floor got collapsed in the fire incident and it took more than 8 hr to control the fire by using water and foam. The people in nearby areas suffered breathing problems due to chemical pollutants in the atmosphere due to fire.
As it is claimed nobody was present during that time, the reason for fire is not known. I am unable to guess the reason for fire. It could be due to accumulation of solvent vapors and insufficient ventilation and the ignition source can be some glowing lamp.
It is reported that there are many chemical godowns in the area that does not have permission from PCB authorities. There should be a single window system for clearing industrial activities wherein all concerned departments like factory department, pollution control board, water authority, electricity authority, police department, revenue department, health department, etc scrutinize the applications and then only authorize for setting up the facility and permit connections for electricity, water, etc.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3778402.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3778402.ece
Chevron's safety record hit by accidents
A spate of accidents in Chevron Corporation reveals a lot is to be done by oil industry as even the best organization with commitment to safety suffers from accidents. The statistics are wonderful with an incident rate of 0.2 per million man-hours worked. Though there are organizations where zero accident rate is reported for many years, the approach and methodology varies from industry to industry.
There are many organizations where safety is only a stage talk and give least importance in practice. Unless everybody from top to bottom assume responsibility for safety, no organization however best it is, will fail and therefore needs continuous vigil on its operations so that accidents do not occur.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Chevron-s-safety-record-hit-by-accidents-3791793.php#page-1
There are many organizations where safety is only a stage talk and give least importance in practice. Unless everybody from top to bottom assume responsibility for safety, no organization however best it is, will fail and therefore needs continuous vigil on its operations so that accidents do not occur.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Chevron-s-safety-record-hit-by-accidents-3791793.php#page-1
Aug 14, 2012
Act on near misses instead of cleaning after accidents
In an article,
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/st_essay_close_calls/, it is stated that there is an 80% drop in serious accidents at Dow Chemical after the company implemented close call reporting. Though, it looks cumbersome and time consuming initially to act upon the near misses, it is an opportunity to purge the system of unsafe conditions and will be prove beneficial in the long run to the organisation. Managers should encourage their employees to report all near misses and appreciate them instead of chiding them and be grateful to the workers for reporting near misses.
Aug 1, 2012
Contract workers - no concern for their safety?
Safety of contract workers is given less importance compared to regular employees. In industrial areas, we can find this difference glaringly. Even the contractor who provides manpower also is not concerned though he may be charging the organization for use of safety appliances by his personnel. These daily wage earners are treated like no entity and the contractors who earn money by using these people are nothing short of leeches. Factory managements and factory inspectors should penalize heavily such contractors so that they feel it is better to provide safety appliances rather than paying the penalty. Ordering the closure of factory also will do good as managements can ensure safety for contract workers also by whatever means it is appropriate. Sometime back I listened to a talk wherein the speaker said that the contractor will be penalized Rs. 5,000/- for every violation and this money is credited into safety awareness fund. After three violations, the contractor will be blacklisted. I feel such measures will help in creating awareness by force among all and ensure safety for all.
Jul 31, 2012
Fire in Tamilnadu Express train on 30.07.2012 at 0420 hr
In a train fire incident on 30.07.2012 at about 0420 hr in Tamilnadu Express train that travels from New Delhi to Chennai, 32 passengers died and 28 received burn injuries, a few them in critical state. The incident took place immediately after the train crossed the Nellore railway station (the train after a stop at Vijayawada stops only at its terminal stop i.e. Chennai central, running nonstop for 7 hours between these two stations covering 430 km distance). The station master or others at Nellore did not see any thing wrong while the train passed but an alert gateman of a level crossing at about a kilometer from Nellore railway station saw flames from the toilet of S-11 coach and alerted the station. When someone pulled chain, the train stopped after travelling for about 5 minutes.
Various news reports say the train travelling at 80-110 kmph and at the time of the incident, all four doors of the coach and windows are in closed condition due to rains. A loud sound was heard between berths 40 & 44 as told by survivors and the escape of passengers inside was restricted due to unauthorized passengers sleeping on aisle in the coach, fire in the vestibule connecting S-11 and S-10 coaches, jamming of the three doors out of four and one out of two emergency escape windows due to heat. (In every coach, generally side lower berths will be under reservation-against-cancellation (RAC) with two passengers sitting on the berth and it is likely that one of the two in every berth may sleep on the aisle or space between main berths). Few lucky escaped through S-12 coach. Piling of dead bodies near the door is an indication of inability of passengers to escape due to jamming of doors. At the time of the incident, a long goods train with two engines passed for five minutes and thus nobody could escape for that period from the emergency window by which time many succumbed due to asphyxiation and burns. It is reported that fire tenders reach by 0445 hour and used gas cutters to open the doors for fire fighting.
Various theories are reported for the reason as below.
- Finding of a kerosene can wrapped in a jute bag in the gutted coach, leading to sabotage theory.
- Short circuit in the battery power supply unit, with sparks flying to ceiling fan near the gate leading to spread of fire. It is reported that 110 V supply is used in the trains and this is unlikely to lead to short circuit.
A committee constituted by former railway minister with Dr.Anil Kakodkar as Chairman observed that most of the train fire incidents took place between 0200 and 0600 hr due to lack of proper detection, warning and fire fighting system and recommended many measures including fire detectors as smoke detectors can't be effective in running train, banning of use of gas cylinders for cooking in pantry cars, etc. Though, smoking is prohibited, still passenger smoke in the toilets or near the doors and this too can lead to fires.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article3704654.ece Tamilnadu Express incident list
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3704435.ece About Indian Railways guidelines on fire safety
Jul 27, 2012
Education system - stress on children
Every few years, syllabus of lower classes is being increased by adding that from higher classes and this is making the children to spend more time to study with no time for sports, etc thus causing stress in them. People say that increasing competition is leading to stress, but when we compare how we were and what our children are, it is apparent that the present syllabus in classes VI-X is heavy and contains some portions from higher classes of our time. Though, experts say young brains are capable of grasping whatever is fed to them, but there should be a limit to it. One should remember that innovations and technologies of present day are due to efforts of people who studied earlier with the syllabus not so heavily loaded.
With the shortsightedness of some people who review and decide syllabus, children are getting stuffed with more and more syllabus with passing years. For an adult, syllabus of lower classes appears easy but not for the kids who have to actually go through. This appears to be a reason why syllabus is increased at regular intervals without realizing its effects on the growth of the young children.
More syllabus is leading to shortcuts in studies for getting marks, without understanding. Students are fed with questions and answers, asked to remember the answers and in the process killing their interest, logical thinking abilities, and eventually harming the future generations. Even parents also join the race by forcing their wards to study with no relaxation. If a kid comes to parent for explanation, many of the present day parents are not in a position to clarify the doubts. When left with no other option, they ask their kids to memorize without understanding.
The results are already visible with many students in colleges (after 10+2) having back log of subjects because no body feeds them with questions and answers in higher classes unlike in lower classes. Many corporate HR managers of the view that the present day job aspirants do not have good understanding of the subjects though they got good marks in their college examinations.
Sometimes, I read in news papers that the syllabus are trimmed by some governments but unless it is done for all states, no gains can be seen forcing the children to memorize the lines.
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