Fire Accident in SDSC SHAR on 23/2/04<br />February 24, 2004<br /><br /><br /> A major fire accident occurred on a Segment of a Test Rocket Motor at the<br />Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB) at Satish Dhawan Space<br />Centre(SDSC-SHAR), Sriharikota, in the afternoon of 23/2/2004. It claimed<br />the lives of six persons including an Engineer, three Technicians and two<br />Helpers and caused burn injuries to three persons.<br /><br />The above crew of nine people was engaged in the Cast-Cure facility. The<br />work at the time of fire accident was the final operations of removing the<br />fixtures after the satisfactory conclusion of propellant curing of a segment<br />of a motor holding around 14.5 tones of solid propellant, which is a<br />composite of Ammomium Percholorate Oxidiser, atomised aluminium powder as<br />fuel and Hydroxy Terminated Polybutadiene as binder. In the forenoon, the<br />crew had satisfactorily concluded the removal of mandrel, which is one of<br />the critical operations. At around 3.15 p.m. the crew were attending to the<br />removal of the bottom plate of the casting assembly. During these<br />operations, the propellant in the segment inadvertently caught fire and<br />caused severe damages to the building and persons inside.<br /><br />Three members of the nine-member team were able to escape from the building<br />with burn injuries. They are Shri Y Krishna Prasad, Shri S Narayanan, both<br />are Senior Engineers and, Shri S K Sachin, Tradesman. They were immediately<br />rushed to Apollo Hospital, Chennai, for giving best medical attention. Six<br />others who could not escape from the building were rapidly asphyxiated and<br />burnt of intense heat and fumes of burning of 14.5 tones of Propellant. They<br />are Shri Ramakrishna Prasad, Engineer; Shri Basheer Saheb; Shri N<br />Krishnaiah; Sri Srinivasulu (all Senior Technicians); Shri Pandit and Shri<br />Sanjiv (Helpers).<br /><br />The building suffered extensive damage due to intense heat and the estimated<br />damage is about Rs. 70 lakhs. SPROB was provided with two Cast-Cure<br />facilities to meet any contingencies and hence ISRO's programme is not<br />expected to suffer on account of damages to the building.<br /><br />A high power Committee has been appointed under the Chairmanship of Shri R<br />Aravamudan to identify the events that led to the accident, the extent of<br />damage, and the corrective actions required for the future.