Visakhapatnam Fire and Emergency Safety Guide

At about 2.30 to 3 am on 7 May 2020, styrene vapour leaked from the LG Polymers plant at R R Venkatapuram, near Gopalapatnam, and the cloud spread about 3 km. Early counts put the dead at 11, and the toll was later given as 13; over 1,000 people were exposed, police asked residents within 2 km to move out, and a fact-finding committee blamed outdated tanks without temperature sensors and gross human failure.

In August 2013, a cooling-tower fire at the HPCL refinery killed two workers and left 37 under treatment, most of them employed by a contractor on the tower. On 25 May 2021, a fire broke out in a crude processing unit at about 3.10 pm; sirens sounded, nobody was hurt, and the fire was under control within about an hour. Three workers had been burnt in a reformer-unit fire in April 2019.

On 8 June 2026, a ladle holding molten steel at about 1,500 degrees Celsius exploded in the SMS-1 shop of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. Eight workers died that day, the toll reached 10, six were hurt, and an expert committee was set up to find the cause. On 1 August 2020, a crane collapsed during a trial run at Hindustan Shipyard and 11 people died, among them contract labourers.

Cyclone Hudhud made landfall near Visakhapatnam on the afternoon of 12 October 2014 with winds of 185 km/h. The airport stayed shut from 11 to 17 October with its roof torn off, the steel plant was without power from 12 to 16 October, and about 70 per cent of the city's trees were destroyed. Andhra Pradesh recorded 46 deaths, and about 1.11 lakh people had been moved from coastal districts beforehand.

At about 3 am on Wednesday 30 April 2025, after a night of heavy rain and strong wind, a wall at the Simhachalam temple fell on the Rs 300 ticket queue near the shopping complex on the ghat road. Seven devotees died, three women and four men, and an inquiry committee was set up. Heavy rain softens the soil behind retaining walls, which is when queues and stalls below them are at risk.

On 2 October 2026, six ninth-grade students went swimming near Rushikonda, and three of them, aged 14 and 15, were swept away and went missing; marine police and lifeguards searched. RK Beach recorded 42 deaths in the five years from 2021 to 2025, and lifeguards rescued 199 people from 2023 to November 2025. Rip currents here can run at 5 to 8 km/h, 50 to 150 feet from the shore.