A SUDDEN increase in voltage in the Mtibwa Sugar factory's heating system electrical circuit ignited a blast one hour past midnight on Wednesday as technical personnel were preparing to operate it for production activity.

SACP Alex Mkama, the Morogoro regional police commander, said yesterday the incident occurred after midnight where 11 people were killed and two others injured, three of the dead being foreign nationals, with an Indian, Kenyan and a Brazilian.

The surge in the voltage touched off electricity circuit failure and thus the fateful blast, where electricity engineers were seeking to restore the malfunctioning power system in the plant’s control room, he said.

The two injured people were in close observation at the Bwagala Mission Hospital, while remains of the blast victims were being kept at the factory hospital mortuary, Turiani ward in the district.

Dr David Ruchwanisa, medical officer in-charge at Turiani Hospital said that they received the two injured technicians at around 4am where they conducted urgent treatment and referred them to the Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in the capital for intense observation.

They had burns in various parts of their bodies including on the stomach, chest, legs and hands, he said, while Fadhili Chilombe, the power company’s regional manager, said the system was using low voltage when turning on, with subsequent voltage normalisation occurring without hiccups.

The power system at the factory was disabled due to the blast, with the Tanzania Electric Supply Co, (TANESCO) working to fix the power system to restore operations.

Juma Palamba, the Mtibwa Sugar head of instrumentation, said that engineers were in the room to test a steam power plant that had undergone improvements to increase operational capacity.

The plant was being tested before commencing operations by May 24, he stated, affirming that all the devices were fixed very well but the accident occurred after engineers produced steam and opened the room to go to the power house to upgrade the turbines, to raise its capacity to 45 bars and 450ºC.

Earlier the plant was using 24 bars and heat of around 300ºC, he said, asserting that there was a small technical fault which occurred in fixing the devices.

“In improving the systems, there are various changes that are made before enabling the boiler to support receiving and producing steam at a greater level and this goes parallel with testing whether the engine will withstand the relevant changes, and that is why the first test was to increase the power of the router (path) to be able to receive 45 bars,” the engineer explained.

In the plant’s operation room there were like 16 people but when the incident occurred he was out on a phone call. While on the phone, his assistant also went out on a phone call. A few minutes later, the factory’s manager went to the boiler to inspect if things were going well there, “so this means 13 people remained in the room. This is how we survived, it is a very hurting story,” he added.