A gas leakage was reported in Noida (UP) today (February 1, 2020) around 12pm wherein immediate deployment of police force and fire fighters was witnessed. The National Disaster Response Force (NDFR) was informed about the gas leak that had people being evacuated from Haldiram's building in Sector 65 of the city after an ammonia gas leakage was reported from there, officials said.
Police officials, including senior officers, remained deployed at the site. An alert call was received on emergency 112 service of the police. A team of 47 NDRF personnel were at the spot and the situation was brought under control by 3 pm. Firefighters, who responded to the emergency, had "diluted the ammonia gas which had got mixed in the air in and around the building," a Fire Department official said.
There are two adjoining units of Haldiram in the building, one was the production unit and the other was its cooling or the maintenance unit, an NDRF official said. The leak occured through one of the valves of the four ammonia condensers in the maintenance unit where around 22 people were working and evacuated, NDRF Assistant Commandant Anil Kumar Singh told Press trust of India.
"People were immediately evacuated from the building," a police spokesperson said. The leak has witnessed 1 dead and over 300 evacuated. The person who died allegedly after an ammonia gas leak was a 42 year old worker named Sanjeev Kumar who was identified as an ammonia operator there. The building has been marked isolated for the time being.
"Exposure to high concentrations of ammonia, also used as a refrigerant gas, causes immediate burning of eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract and can result in blindness, lung damage or death."
Author - Dyuti Pandya
