Zeenews Bureau
Jaipur: The Petroleum Ministry on Friday ordered a high-level probe into the Indian Oil Corporation depot fire disaster in Jaipur, which killed at least 13 people and left over 150 seriously injured.
The massive fire has severely affected the movement of crucial trains passing via Jaipur.
This is being described as one of the worst fire-related incident in IOC’s history.
The official death toll still stands at three, however other sources have reported about 13 deaths due to the fire breakout.
Meanwhile, senior state and police officials are saying that another 5-6 people could be trapped inside. Teams from the Army and Bombay High are trying to control the fire in the oil depot located in Sitapura Industrial Area on the highway near the airport 20 kms from the pink city.
Even as relief and rescue operations continue, more explosions are being heard in the area.
The authorities are still clueless about 5-6 IOC officials and efforts are on to trace them.
Elaborating more on the rescue operation, Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, who has arrived in Jaipur, said, “Experts have been called in to help in accessing and minimising the damages done to the IOC establishment”.
"We will have to let all the fuel burn. Only then will experts be able to go anywhere near the site," Deora told reporters here after a visit to the site with senior officials of the state-run company. "We expect the fuel to burn out by evening."
Deora also announced compensation of Rs 5 to 10 lakhs to the victims and their families.
Rajasthan Health Minister Aimaduddin Ahmad Khan also stated that the State Government has announced an ex-gratia of two lakh rupees to next of kin of those killed in the incident, one lakh to those seriously injured and 50,000 rupees to the injured.
"The latest information that we have is about 20 in Sawai Man Singh Hospital, about 15 in Fortis and 50 in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital. All precautions have been taken and people have been evacuated from nearby houses and areas," AA Khan said.
It is believed that fire broke out –due to leakage - when petrol was being transferred from the fuel depot to a pipeline at around 7.30 pm yesterday.
Huge flames shot into the air amid billowing smoke as hundreds of people in the villages in and around the depot panicked and fled from their homes. The fire also spread to some industrial units in a radius of three km destroying them.
IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria told a news agency that the fire broke out at a petrol storage tank and quickly spread to other tanks. Police said several explosions were heard.
The IOC tank farm had 8 to 10 storage containers that stored petrol, diesel kerosene for supply in Jaipur and adjoining areas.
Officials said steps were being taken to ensure that the fire did not spread far through the pipeline.
Electricity in the area has been cut off as a precautionary measure.
Dr Ashok Pangudia, Medical Superintendent at Sawai Man Singh (SMS) hospital, confirmed that twelve persons have so far died in the incident, while one person was reported to have died in a private hospital. Some of the injured had splinter injuries, he said.
The injured were also rushed to Mahatma Gandhi hospital. Some of them had serious burn injuries.
First Published: Friday, October 30, 2009, 14:30