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At Vizag plant where nine died, workers highlight production pressure, safety hazards

Scroll | June 14, 2026 1:39 PM CST

On the afternoon of June 8, as K Pydiraju was handling a reservoir to collect molten steel in the Steel Melt Shop-1 of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited steel plant in Visakhapatnam, there was a massive explosion in a ladle overhead.

The ladle was filled with molten steel that had a dangerously high temperature of 1,600 degrees Celsius. It spilled on the shop floor, causing an inferno within seconds.

Eight workers died instantaneously. Videos showed blackened bodies on fire on the shop floor. When bodies were eventually carried away on stretchers, they were charred beyond recognition.

Pydiraju, a contract worker who did casting work at the plant that is owned by the Union government, was slightly farther away. He and five others suffered burn injuries.

“He was conscious but critical,” said KM Srinivas, who works in the same continuous casting department and helped rush Pydiraju out. “He had suffered over 90% burns.”

A video of Pydiraju, in an ambulance, asking both his children to study well went viral. He was first taken to the steel plant’s general hospital. “There is no burn unit there despite this being an industrial sector,” Srinivas said. “He was referred to a hospital in the city an hour away.”

On June 10, Pydiraju succumbed to his injuries,...