8 Burnt At Tema Steel

Eight workers including an Indian expatriate of Special Steel Company Limited, a steel manufacturing company in Tema, on Tuesday sustained various degrees of injury when an industrial accident hit the company. The accident was said to have occurred around 11:30pm when a molten metal in a mould splashed on the victims when a metal accidentally dropped in the mould. The injured persons are Francis Annor, 27, Clement Nuobrieh, 29, Eric Azilaki, 45, Robert Ankrah, 56, Anthony Anorhu, 43, Nartey Joseph, 23 and Kwame Ahin, 33. The identity of the expatriate was not known as at press time yesterday. The injured workers were reportedly rushed to Raphal Medical Centre at Community 11 in Tema, where they are currently receiving treatment. Industrial accidents have become the order of the day in steel factories in Tema. The Indian expatriate is said to be a supervisor at the factory and his injury was described as serious.He was transferred to the Tema General Hospital and later to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. Dr. Johnson Addo told DAILY GUIDE that eight of the victims were rushed to his outfit with various burns which he described as �first and second degree injuries excluding the Indian expatriate� whose injury he described as very serious. According to him, the injured victims arrived at his hospital at about 1:00am and with the help of medical specialists, they were treated. Antwi Boasiako Sekyere, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, who visited the injured persons, described the accident as unfortunate. He was happy to observe that the situation was not as serious as he was told earlier. He pointed out that the accident called for a closer look at safety measures at various places of work. Asked if the call by the Ghana Federation of Labour for the temporary closure of the company would be adhered to by his ministry, the Deputy Minister remarked that with what he saw at the factory when he visited shortly after the accident, there would be no need to do so and rather called for an improvement in the area of safety of the workers of the company. He called for an automation of the process of steel manufacturing at the company since that would reduce accidents at the various steel manufacturing companies. Jagdish Singh, General Manager in charge of production, denied earlier reports