Ramgarh Kuju Steel Plant Furnace Blast: Three to Four Workers Burnt, One Serious, at a Plant With Earlier Fatal Blasts

What happened

On Saturday evening, 24 October 2026, around 7.30 pm, there was a blast in a furnace at the Shriram Power and Steel plant on the Kuju Naya Mod-Arra road in Ramgarh district, Jharkhand. The night shift was working, and sponge melting, in which iron ore is melted, was going on. Local reports say the explosion was in the lower part of the furnace. Three or four workers were burnt, and one of them is in a serious condition. Panic spread through the plant, and the injured were rushed to a local hospital. Updated 26 October 2026.

How many were hurt

The count differs. Jagran and Amar Ujala say three workers were burnt: a fitter aged 18, a crane operator aged 24 from Nepal and a 31-year-old melter, who is the serious case. Navbharat Times, Hindustan and Lagatar say four workers were burnt, one seriously and three slightly, and that all were from Bihar. The reports also differ on where they were taken (a local nursing home or a hospital). We do not name the injured and show the range of three to four. No death has been reported by 26 October.

Hindustan and Navbharat Times add that the plant’s management called the accident minor and did not come forward with details on the cause, the safety measures or the injured men’s condition, and that other workers of the plant protested, demanding better treatment for their colleagues. Kuju outpost police reached the spot, and an assistant sub-inspector took stock of the situation. No official cause has been confirmed.

A plant with earlier blasts

Local reports say this is not the first accident at this plant. Jagran and Amar Ujala say that two workers died in an incident on 22 September 2025, and that on 9 August 2026 a furnace blast took lives, three according to them. Navbharat Times says that one worker died on 9 August. A PTI report in The Pioneer on that August blast says nine workers were injured when hot metal splashed after an explosion in the furnace chamber of a private steel plant at Murpa village under the Kuju outpost, and that two critically injured workers were sent to a private hospital in Ranchi. Chief Factory Inspector Manish Sinha said an inspector from Hazaribag had been directed to inquire and report. The PTI report does not name the plant; the local reports link that blast to this one. The figure for August deaths therefore ranges from one to three and we could not settle it. We found no published result of the inquiry.

Why this matters

Furnace and molten-metal work is among the most dangerous jobs in India’s steel sector, and many of the men doing it are migrant workers on contract. When blasts repeat at the same plant, the question is no longer one bad night but whether the safety system works. Nothing in the reports says what caused this blast. As a general point, molten metal that meets moisture or trapped water can throw hot metal out of a furnace, but no report says this happened here and we do not claim it. We covered similar sites in the Durg steel plant accident at Rasmada, where molten iron fell on a contractor, and the Bokaro ESL steel gas exposure. For the broader record, see boiler explosions and factory fires in India and industrial accident data.

Lessons for workers, supervisors and managers

• Workers: use the full kit you are given: face shield, heat-resistant jacket and gloves, safety shoes, and a helmet. Cotton or aluminised clothing is safer than synthetic, which melts into the skin. Stay out of the splash zone during charging and tapping. Our PPE note lists what employers must provide and train.
• Do not hide a burn or call it minor. Report every injury, even a small one. A worker with burns must be sent to a hospital with a burns unit at once and not kept at the plant.
• Supervisors: check that scrap and ore going into a furnace are dry, that cooling water lines and moulds have no leaks, and that charging follows the written procedure. Stop the work if you are not sure. Keep an eyewash, an emergency shower and a first aid box within a few steps of the furnace.
• Managers and owners: an accident that injures workers has to be reported to the Factory Inspector, and repeated blasts need an inquiry that is made public to the workers. Run drills for a furnace emergency and put the ambulance number and the burns hospital on the notice board. Our workplace emergency preparedness checklist can be used as a starting point.
• First aid for a burn: cool the burn under running water for about 20 minutes (do not use ice), remove rings and loose clothing unless stuck to the skin, cover it with a clean cloth and send the person by ambulance. See our first aid guide.
• Families and fellow workers: if a colleague is burnt, you can call 108 yourself and insist on treatment. Keep a record of the shift, the names and the time.

What is still not known

The cause of the blast; the exact number and identity of the injured (three or four), their present condition and where they are being treated; whether the plant had the required safety checks; whether the factory inspector or police have recorded a case; and what happened with the inquiry into the 9 August blast, including how many workers died then. Management has given no public explanation. We will update this page when the inspector, the police or the district administration publish something. Last checked 26 October 2026.