Team Herald
VASCO: A 72-year-old woman was shifted to the hospital, while hundreds of Chicalim residents were forced to move to safer place, after a tanker carrying 15 tonnes of liquid ammonia overturned near Sea Scan Maritime Academy, opposite Chicalim SAG Ground in Vasco during wee hours on Friday.
According to information available the ammonia-laden tanker bearing registration GA-06-T-2864, driven by 26-year-old Dada Chaudhary, native of Maharashtra along with the cleaner Neeraj Kumar (22), native of UP left the ammonia terminal at MPT to deliver 15 tonnes of ammonia to Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd at Birla- Zuarinagar. However, when they reached near the Maritime Academy at Chicalim, the driver lost control over his vehicle and dashed against the road divider and the fancy lamppost erected on the road median. Soon ammonia started leaking after the tanker overturned and within no time the air in the area was filled with ammonia gas.
“I was going at the normal speed of 40km/hr; however a speeding car from the internal road (from jogger’s park side) suddenly came on the main road and was right in front of my vehicle. To avoid the mishap I tried to move towards the right and dashed against road divider and then against the pole, after which the vehicle overturned. We managed to come out of the vehicle safely and immediately alerted emergency services,” Chaudhary informed Herald.
Since the incident happened during the wee hours, residents were fast asleep. None had any clue that they were feeling suffocated due to ammonia leakage.
“We were fast asleep inside our rooms and at about 2.50 am someone started knocking saying it was an emergency and we should run out of the room and move to safe place. The moment we opened the doors we were unable to breathe and yet to save ourselves we started running helter-shelter, leaving everything behind. The situation was totally chaotic, one of our roommates Dikshit Ahir even jumped from the compound wall and sustained minor injuries,” Nayan Tondon, a trainee at Sea Scan Academy said, adding after they moved to a safer place behind the campus they learnt what had happened.
Tondon, along with 113 trainees, was the first one to face the sudden trauma as the ammonia tanker had fallen right in front of the campus building.
Meanwhile, soon after receiving information, Goa fire and emergency services responded and rushed to the site. They were soon joined by fire tenders from MPT, Zuari and Navy and it took over six hours to bring the situation under control.
While the south district disaster response team was busy trying to control the spread of ammonia leakage by spraying water, a police team was busy in blocking vehicular traffic on Chicalim-Airport road, while another police team was busy waking up people using megaphone, urging them to evacuate the incident site.
“My Mother was inside the house and luckily by the grace of god she survived. The tanker had fallen touching the compound wall next to my house and she was inside the house for over two hours and finally she was evacuated by the disaster response team. For me it’s a miracle that she survived,” Raj Bhandari said. His 72-year-old mother was shifted to the nearby hospital.
The Chicalim-Airport road was blocked for over eight hours for all traffic and the whole area was cordoned off as the ammonia was leaking nonstop, even though fire fighters were continuously spraying water on the tanker to control spread of ammonia gas.
Finally, after over six long hours of continuous efforts the disaster response team managed to bring situation under the control and the ill-fated ammonia tanker was later escorted to Zuari plant.
“The tanker was carrying 15 tons of liquid ammonia and there was massive ammonia leakage. Altogether 15 fire tenders were used to control it and fortunately there were no casualties. Four schools which are located in the neighbourhood of the incident site were asked to shut down for the day and the lady who was admitted to hospital is also stated to be stable,” Additional Collector South Agnelo Fernandes said, adding that police was investigating the case to find out the actual cause of the mishap.
“The disaster preparedness part was the only learning experience for us today. I feel that Zuari Company needs to be prepared for such eventuality. Also, I think we need to find out as to how the tanker had moved in such time and why such tankers are moving during that period and why there were no pilot vans,” Director, Fire and Emergency Services, Goa Ashok Menon said .
