Compressor blast at Sahibabad factory kills two

Ghaziabad: Two workers were killed and a third seriously injured when a compressor exploded during a routine testing procedure at a factory in Sahibabad Industrial Area Site-4 on Thursday evening. The blast, heard from Prahladgarhi and Vasundhara, nearly 5 km away, sent shockwaves across the area.The explosion occurred at Madors Renewal Energy Pvt Ltd, owned by Ramesh Sharma, when the three technicians — Imran, Tribhuvan and Banke Bihari — were testing the machine. The compressor, police said, exploded without warning. Around 18 other employees were also present near the testing area at the time.The force of the blast blew off one worker’s hand. The other two suffered severe injuries to their faces and bodies. A fire broke out immediately after the explosion, but factory staff managed to contain it before it could spread, averting a larger disaster. Workers also pulled their colleagues out of the compressor and rushed them to a nearby hospital.Chief fire officer Rahul Pal said fire brigade personnel were dispatched to the site, but by the time they reached, the flames had already been extinguished.ACP Amit Saxena confirmed that Imran and Tribhuvan died in the incident, while Banke Bihari remained under treatment. No formal complaint has been received, but an investigation is underway to see if there was any negligence on the part of the factory management, police said.While the cause of the explosion is yet to be established, police said they were examining the circumstances under which the compressor failed during what was described as a standard testing procedure and that further legal action would follow once a formal complaint was lodged.Sole breadwinner among deadAmong the dead was Imran, 27, a resident of Kanauja village in Muradnagar. The eldest son in his family and its sole breadwinner, he is survived by his father Sabuddin, his wife Shabnam, a younger brother, Rizwan, and three young children. Family members said the children were too young to understand that their father would not be coming home. After the news of Imran’s death spread, relatives and neighbours gathered at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.