Faulty crematorium incinerator engulfs KK Nagar in soot, smoke

Chennai: A thick black sooty smoke escapes through a small window every time a body is cremated at the AVM crematorium near PV Rajamannar Salai in KK Nagar. The soot has blackened the room where the furnace is kept, and affects grieving families, the four workers who spend 10 hours a day in the complex and the residents nearby.Fixing the leaking incinerator will fix the problem, which has been allowed to fester for more than a year now.As soon as a body is pushed in, fumes that must go up a 100m-long steel pipe into the chimney billow out sideways plunging the entire facility and the neighbourhood in thick smoke.Workers have tried to plug the punctured pipe with thermocol, but in vain. The second blower is also rusted and is not directing the fumes up the chimney. "Ideally, there should not be any trace of soot in the smoke; it must be white," said one of the crematorium workers, who is paid 15,000 a month. A motor pump must send water to the furnace to cool the smoke and remove the soot. "But this is also not working," said the worker, as he picked up soot from the chimney bottom. There were no exhaust fans in the furnace room, although there were vents. A non-functional biogas plant was kept near the furnace.The crematorium gets up to 70 bodies a month. "During the pandemic, we used to get 10 times more. They gave us protective equipment then, which got worn out," said another worker, speaking to TOI, covered in soot, unmasked and barefoot.The workers complained to GCC multiple times, but no action was taken. The crematorium was also closed for a fortnight in Feb 2024 for maintenance, but seemingly to no effect. "If the dead bodies were patients of chronic or contagious illnesses, it could spread to the nearby community and workers," said Sudha R, a resident near the crematorium."We will check the crematorium and sort the issue," said V Periyasamy, GCC's Kodambakkam zonal officer.
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