A labourer died of asphyxiation, when a carbon dioxide tank exploded in the ThyssenKrupp plant in Wadiwarhe, 22 km near Nashik on Friday morning. Five others are currently critical.
The carbon dioxide tank was part of an automatic fire extinguisher apparatus, sources claimed.
When the tank exploded, the deceased Kiran Prabhakar Wani (38) took an oxygen cylinder and ran to save the other workers, who were gasping for breath.
In the chaos, Kiran slipped and fell down and suffocated. His colleagues, however managed to escape. Top police officials reached the spot and rushed the critically ill workers to the Nashik Civil Hospital.
The workers were later admitted to Wockhart and Suyash Hospitals in the city.
Wockhart Hospital in a statement, said that two workers had been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). At the time of going to press, they were still “critical and not out of danger”.
They will be kept under observation for the next 48 hours, doctors said.
Another worker has been admitted in the general ward and was out of danger, but will need close observation, hospital sources said.