Two workers died and four others were injured in a freak accident at the IISCO Steel Plant of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) in Burnpur in West Bengal. Local reports say the workers died after molten steel fell on them.
Steel, an alloy of iron and other materials like carbon, has a melting point of about 1,300 degrees Celsius. The human body sustains serious burns from boiling water with a temperature of 100 degrees celsius.
Any material that is 13 times hotter can do much worse to any person that comes in contact with it, and that was the case at the Burnpur plant accident.
According to initial reports, two people had died and seven had been injured in the accident. However, SAIL confirmed to PTI that the number of injured was four. It also revealed that the deceased had been identified as 25-year-old Ashik Sikka and 23-year-old Sheikh Shahnawaz.
The accident is believed to have happened at around 4 am on Saturday, when a ladle of molten iron was being placed on a turret present in the steel-melting plant. The plant's crisis response team swung into action as soon as they were informed of the accident. The injured have reportedly been sent to hospital and are receiving the best of treatment, said SAIL.
SAIL has also said that a high-level panel has been set up to probe exactly how the accident happened, given that all melting and manufacturing plants usually have safety mechanisms in place to avoid incidents exactly like this. It has also said it will extend all possible help to the next of kin of those killed and injured in the accident.
The steel plant in question is almost a century old: It was established in 1918 and was then the Indian Iron and Steel Company, or IISCO. It was assimilated by SAIL in 2006, and got the name IISCO Steel Plant.
