6 die after ‘inhaling toxic fumes’ in under-construction septic tank in Kalahandi dist

BHUBANESWAR: Six persons, including the owner of a house and his son, allegedly died of asphyxiation while trying to remove the centring of an under-construction septic tank at Gaud Karlakhunta village in Kalahandi district on Tuesday.

Police said five labourers were hired for the job to remove the temporary structure built to support the concrete roof of the tank. They all went in besides the father-son duo, with only one of them coming out alive, but unconscious. Alerted villagers called the fire services, which broke open the tank's cover and roof, recovering six bodies.

"The critically ill person was taken to the district headquarters hospital. When the firefighting team broke open the cover, they found all seven unconscious. Six were later declared dead. They had became unconscious after inhaling poisonous/toxic gas inside the septic tank," SP (Kalahandi) Nagaraj Deverakonda said.

The deceased house owner was identified as Nimai Pal (40), a welder and daily wage labourer. His son, Akash (20), was a diploma student in a polytechnic college.

The four others were identified as Adal Majhi (45), Baikhuntha Jal (35), Chanda Jal (25) and Manoranjan Hatti (34). Baikhuntha and Chanda were from Salepali village, while Adal was from Gaud Karlakhunta and Manoranjan from Motaganda village. The critically ill labourer was identified as Pankaj Jani.

Initially Manoranjan went inside the tank and then Baikhuntha followed. House owner Nimai was the third to enter followed by his son. A relative of Nimai called the fire service even as villagers tried to break the slab of the septic tank to bring out those trapped inside.

"Two of the labourers were professionals and the rest manual labourers, who didn't have expertise in the job they were doing," the SP added.

According to the police, the labourers first made a hole and two of them entered the tank to open the remaining centring. "After they failed to get any response from those inside, the third entered and then others followed," Nagaraj said.

"The fire personnel broke open the roof to gain access to those trapped inside, but all were found unconscious," he added.