CBRN event in India on Thu 30th April 2026

As many as 28 people, including six children and two firefighters, were hospitalised after a chlorine gas leak from a cylinder at a closed storage facility near Gangadham Chowk in Pune early Thursday. Later during the day, the police filed criminal charges against the owner and manager of the facility that used to provide the gas for civic water purification units. According to the Pune Fire Brigade Control room, the incident occurred around 12.50 am at the closed storage facility next to Aaimata Mandir, near Gangadham Chowk. Officials said the condition of all 24 people remained stable, and as of Thursday evening, they were being released from the Sassoon General Hospital and Bharti Hospital where they had been admitted. “This is a closed storage facility of a company that took contracts for water purification in the past. They had kept a cylinder containing unused chlorine gas out in the open space at this facility. Primary observations suggest that due to extreme heat, a leak started from the valve leading to exposure of hazardous chlorine gas to several nearby residents.” said Chief Fire Officer Devendra Potphode. “After citizens complained of irritation in the nose and throat, breathing trouble, and other symptoms in a wider area, multiple teams of firefighters were deployed. Residents from the houses very close to the location who suffered chlorine exposure were moved in ambulances to Sassoon Hospital and Bharti Hospital,” said Fire Officer Sunil Naiknavre, who was one of the responding officers at the scene. “The team of firefighters used breathing apparatus sets for this operation. One of the teams, which was tasked with controlling the leak, used caustic soda to neutralise and dissipate the remaining gas in the cylinder,” said Naiknavre. “Those who required hospitalisations included eight men, eight women and six children from two families — Pisal and Gaikwad — staying next to the facility. These 22 were admitted to Sassoon Hospital. Four men from another family, were admitted to Bharti Hospital. Fire Officer Naiknavre and fireman Dhananjay Bhise also suffered from chlorine exposure and required treatment. Some of them were given nebulisation support. By Thursday evening all of them were being released from the hospital.” said an officer from Bibwewadi police station. Ashfaq Sayyed, a 33-year-old delivery executive who stays near the facility but did not require hospitalisation said, “I had just returned from work when I suddenly started having severe irritation of eyes, nose and throat. Some of us from the neighbourhood traced the source and realised that it was coming from the closed storage facility. We immediately informed the fire brigade. Multiple fire tenders and over two dozen firefighters came. They rushed many people to hospital who were suffering the most. One team stopped the leak. My throat and eye irritation continued for over 10 hours.”