According to fire brigade sources, a chemical tanker of IPCL carrying 12 tonnes of oleum turned turtle in a head on collision with a truck (GRY-4483) near Santrod on the Godhra-Dahod Road. The residents of nearby areas panicked when the foul smell started emitting and spread with the wind.

While the fire brigade personnel of Dahod and Devgarh Baria could not do much to salvage the situation as they were not equipped with breathing apparatus, fire fighters of Vadodara, wearing breathing apparatus, first cooled down the tanker to minimise vaporisation of the chemical and then emptied the tanker by gradually diluting the chemical with water.