10 GMB workers injured in explosion

Zim Now Writer

Ten Grain Marketing Board employees were seriously injured after a grain bucket elevator exploded at the company’s Chegutu depot on January 31.

GMB CEO Rockie Mutenha said initial investigations have pointed to a grain bucket elevator explosion which emitted some heat injuring the personnel on duty.

Department of Civil Protection provincial chairman, Josephat Jaji, who is also Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution permanent secretary, who had put the number of the injured at nine, confirmed the explosion.

“I can confirm that nine people were injured when an explosion occurred at one of the silos that they were working in.

“There were no fatalities and the injured were rushed to Chegutu General Hospital.

“We are, however, waiting for experts to give the cause of the blast as investigations are now underway,” he said.

The injured workers were rushed to Chegutu General Hospital where their condition was said to be stable.

In a similar incident which occurred in 2018, at least four people were killed while three others were seriously injured after an explosion at the GMB’s Lion’s Den Depot, near Chinhoyi.