Goemkarponn Desk
MERCES: Officials went to Bamon Bhat in Merces after locals reported that they could still smell the strong stench of chlorine gas.
Officials from a private chemical manufacturing company, the St Cruz MLA Rudolf Fernandes, and the Merces panchayat, the Goa State Pollution Control Board, and a fire brigade also arrived at the scene.
Actually, the officials from the chemical manufacturing company brought their apparatus for measuring the parts per million (PPM) of chlorine gas, which is still odorous in and around the scrapyard where the gas leak was discovered early on Thursday.
Leading fireman Amit Revonkar later told reporters that they searched the area for any more chlorine gas cylinders, but they couldn’t find any.
The smell was still present because, according to Revonkar, “it was observed that the chlorine gas got mixed with the stagnant water.”
He did, however, disclose that PPM measurements were made by chemical manufacturing unit officials, who concluded that the results were within allowable bounds.
However, Revonkar said, “They have advised that the smell will linger in the area for a while.”
The smell of chlorine gas is still present in and around the Merces scrapyard, so the locals have moved the vulnerable to other locations and exercised extreme caution.
Local Edwin Vaz provided this information, stating that people who live very close to the incident site have moved older people and pregnant women out of the area. Vaz said, “As a precautionary measure, this step has been taken as the odour is still emanating.”
Everybody who was hospitalized in the GMC after suffocating from gas leakage has been released, with the exception of the scrapyard owner.
All affected parties aside from the owner of the scrapyard—have been released from the hospital, according to a police source
A police source said, “The owner has not been discharged due to what appears to be an asthma problem, but his condition is stable.”
