It is reported that eleven workers of Special Steel Limited, an Indian owned steel manufacturing company based in Tema, sustained various degrees of injury in what some of the victims termed as an explosion.

As per report, two of the victims are currently receiving treatment at the Narh Bita Hospital in Tema where they were rushed to shortly after the explosion. Another victim was later referred to the Tema General Hospital after it was detected that medics at the initial health facility could not treat him.

Eight workers of the company, who reportedly sustained minor injuries in the explosion, were said to have been treated at the emergency unit of Narh Bita hospital and discharged based on the recommendation of medics at the hospital.

According to a source at the factory, the victims were part of a night shift that had arrived at the factory around 6:00 PM local time on January 26th 2012.

According to sources, they worked for close to about three and half hours before the incident. The source alleged that the workers were working without protective gears, stressing that the incident could have been averted had an unnamed Indian, believed to be one of the supervisors at the factory, listened to the advice of the workers.

Narrating the incident to Daily Guide, a worker, who pleaded anonymity, remarked that the explosion took place at the furnace department of Special Steel around 8:30 PM local time and criticized the Indian supervisor at that department for refusing to heed the advice of the workers.

The worker said that "We melted certain quantity of iron at the furnace and were waiting to get them shaped into steel when one of our bosses came around and asked that we put more iron into the furnace. Looking at the quantity that had already been melted we kicked against and noted that putting more iron was going to be dangerous."

He added that "Few minutes after we did that we heard a loud sound which was followed by an explosion which subsequently injured some of us in the process. We were even lucky not to have sustained life threatening injuries because we were not wearing protective gears."
Medics at the health facilities refused to give details about the state of the victims and noted that they were focused on ensuring that the injured workers are treated and discharged.

When Daily Guide contacted chief inspector Ms Olivia Turkson, Public Relations Officer of the Tema General hospital, she said that she was not aware of the incident and noted that her outfit will investigate the matter.

In 2011, about 14 employees of another steel manufacturing company, Western Steel and Forging Limited were hit by a massive explosion at the factory at Kpone near Tema, which allegedly claimed one life. The same company reportedly experienced another fatal industrial accident few days after the initial incident.

Workers at that factory sustained what could be described as life threatening injuries.

(Sourced from www.ghanaweb.com)