Nagpur: In a heart-wrenching turn of events, 43-year-old Usha Balaji Rewatkar, who had been battling severe burn injuries since the devastating March 1 explosion at SBL Energy Limited in Raulgaon, succumbed during treatment at a private hospital on Thursday morning at 8:15 am. With her death, the toll in the tragic incident has risen to 26, leaving behind a trail of shattered families and unanswered questions.
Usha had suffered nearly 60% burns in the blast and had been fighting for her life for weeks. Her death has not only added to the grim toll but has also plunged an already vulnerable family into unimaginable despair.
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A resident of Dudhala Kondhali, Usha was the sole breadwinner of her household. For the past decade, her husband Balaji has been bedridden, paralysed below the waist, rendering him completely dependent. Despite overwhelming odds, Usha worked tirelessly as a labourer at the factory for the last four years, carrying the entire burden of the family on her shoulders.
Her daily struggle was not just about survival, but about securing a future for her three daughters. Her eldest, Himanshi, is in the third year of engineering, striving to build a career; Divya is pursuing her polytechnic studies in Arvi; and the youngest, Vanshika, is preparing for her Class 12 examinations. Every rupee Usha earned went into their education and the family’s basic needs.
With her untimely death, the family now stands on the brink, a paralysed father, three daughters with uncertain futures, and the sudden loss of the only source of income. The tragedy has laid bare the human cost of the explosion, turning what was already a major industrial disaster into a deeply personal catastrophe for those left behind.
As the death toll climbs, Usha’s story stands as a painful reminder of the silent sacrifices of workers whose lives are often reduced to numbers after such disasters, leaving families to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of irreversible loss.
