‘I made 72 calls to ambulance & fire brigade but help came in late’

Tonk Kalan (Dewas): The screams hadn’t stopped even hours after the explosion. Outside hospital wards in Dewas and Indore, men with charred hands kept dialling home in Bihar, assuring their families they were alive while sitting beside co-workers wrapped in blood-stained sheets and bandages. Some used pieces of cardboard to fan the burnt bodies of their friends in the blistering heat as they waited for treatment.

The survivors of Tonk Kalan firecracker factory blast recounted scenes of panic, burning flesh and desperate attempts to save trapped workers after a massive explosion ripped through the unit on Thursday afternoon.

Shashi Kumar, one of the workers who escaped the inferno, alleged that help arrived too late despite repeated calls for emergency assistance.

“I made 72 calls to ambulance and fire brigade but by the time help came, our people had already died. We kept waiting in the heat. I dragged many of my friends out of the fire. Many had suffered chemical burns,” he said from the district hospital.

According to workers, around 300 labourers from Bihar had been employed at the factory for the past six months. Most had migrated after leaving their families behind in search of work.

Many of the injured, their clothes partially burnt and skin peeling off, walked towards the highway on their own after the explosion and waited there hoping someone would take them to a hospital.

Shashi said he worked in the section where chemicals were filled into boxes used for manufacturing crackers.

Nineteen-year-old Neeraj Kumar was inconsolable after losing his elder brother Dheera, 25, in the blast. Sitting outside the hospital ward, he repeatedly broke down while recalling the moments after the explosion.

“I pulled my brother out of the fire and rushed him to the hospital. No help arrived in time. Otherwise, he could have been saved,” he said.

Another worker, 19-year-old Santosh Kumar, said the workers had resumed duty shortly after lunch when the blast occurred.

“We had just started working again. One man was mixing chemicals when suddenly there was a huge explosion. Everything was torn apart. People were running in every direction,” he said.

He added that parts of the factory structure were blown away in the blast. Neeraj claimed three workers known to them were still missing, though officials did not confirm this.