Jaipur: The huge fire at the Indian Oil
Corp's fuel depot on the outskirts of the City claiming six
lives so far raged late tonight more than 26 hours after it
erupted and will be allowed to burn out, as six 'missing'
employees are feared dead.
"The fire would take atleast 36 hours more to die down",
IGP-Range-I B L Soni told news agencies tonight citing IOC officials'
report, as fire brigage and the Army battled to check the
spread of the inferno that has burnt about Rs 150 crore worth
of auto fuel. The fire broke out at around 7.30 PM last night.
Of the deceased, one body was identified as IOC employee
Vijay Singh(40) by his relatives, Soni said, adding four
bodies were yet to be identified. An abandoned body located
inside a burnt-out area this morning was pulled out and sent
for postmortem, he added.
The 130 injured were being treated in several hospitals.
This included the 85 persons admitted to a private Mahatma
Gandhi college and Hospital, located near the fire site, and
shifted to another hospital since there was no electricity
since yesterday, Soni said.
"The fire continues to rage in 4-5 tanks where the
product is being allowed to burn under controlled conditions
so that the intesity of the fire and the damage that it is
likely to cause is minimised," said IOC Chairman Sarthak
Behuria.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora visited the accident site
and said the fire has to die down on its own and there was "no
other solution" to douse the leaping flames.
"You cannot do anything now. It (fire) has to die down
on its own," Deora told reporters.
Deora has ordered a probe into the accident by a 5-member
committee headed by M B Lal, former Chairman and Managing
Director, HPCL. It has been asked to submit its report in six
weeks.
About 50,000 kl of fuel, mostly diesel, caught fire due
to a pipeline leak at one of the tanks that stored petrol
at the end of the daily routine of loading products in tank
trucks.
The intensity of the blaze was such that fire fighters
were finding it difficult to go anywhere close to it.
Deora said IOC will give ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the
kin of those killed, Rs 2 lakh to the seriously injured and Rs
1 lakh to those with minor injuries. "This is besides the
compensation announced by the Rajasthan government," he said.
"Six of our staff--three officers and three blue collared
employees are missing," Behuria said.
There were nine IOC employees and one BPCL employee at
the tank farm that had a capacity to store one lakh kilolitres
of petrol, diesel and kerosene in 13 tanks when the fire broke
out.
Dense clouds of black smoke still billowed out of the oil
tanks that were ablaze and could be seen from a distance of 10
km on the Jaipur-Tonk highway.
Chief Secretary Kushal Singh and Principal Secretary(Home)
Pradeep Sen also toured the affected localities and directed
the police and civil administration to provide security and
help to the citizens who have been evacuated from near the
fire ravaged site.
Many of the affected people were rehabiliated in school
and private buildings, according to an official release.
One lensman Dilip Parmar and a TV scribe Vimlesh
received minor injuries and were being treated at the SMS
hospital. They showed symptoms of suffocation.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, October 31, 2009, 00:32