India: Deadly fire after oil containers at depot burst

Chokhi Dhani, a traditional Rajasthani village resort located adjacent to the Indian Oil Corporation depot at Sitapura had about 400 guests when the fire broke out.

The visitors who thronged the resort were in for a shock. The fire broke out in the evening accompanied by noise as the area shook. Initially people suspected it to be an earthquake. However, the flames that blazed alerted the hotel management of the looming danger and the hotel management ordered urgent evacuation.

One of the visitors in the hotel, Rakesh told TOI that the fire broke out with a big noise. "I thought that was an earthquake. But we could see the smoke and flames from a distance and we realised that it was a major fire," said Rakesh.

The Met office located near it recorded tremor of 2.3 on Richter scale. However, the Met office said it was not a tremor but the high intensity of the blast that shook the earth in the nearby areas. The impact of the blast was so huge that it could be felt even 20 km away.

According to the hotel management, all the guests were evacuated to safer places. Chokhi Dhani is one of the most sought after tourist joints in Jaipur.

Fourteen persons were killed and 160 others sustained burn injuries in a major fire that broke out at Indian Oil Coporation's Jaipur fuel  depot on Thursday evening. 

Injured have been admitted to Sawai Mann Singh and MG hospital in Jaipur. About 20 ambulances have been rushed into the service to help victims ferry to nearby hospitals. 

"There may be injuries to some. We do not know as of now. An assessment can only be made after the fire is contained," a company official said in New Delhi. 

The fire broke out at 1930 hrs when petrol was being transferred from the depot to a pipeline in the outskirts of Jaipur. Efforts are on to douse which spread fast and took an enormous shape. 

Special teams have been rushed to Jaipur to coordinate the operations there, the officials said. 

As a precautionary measure, power supply to the area has been cut off.

Jaipur, Oct 29 (PTI) Rajasthan government tonight announced Rs two lakh as compensation to the next of the kin of those who were killed in the major fire that erupted in an Indian Oil Corporation depot here.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who presided an emergency cabinet meeting late this evening in the wake of the fire, said Rs one lakh would be given to the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 to those who suffered "normal" burn injuries.

He said all private hospitals have been asked to treat the injured and the government foot the bills of their treatment.

Although officials have confirmed five deaths, six others present at the site at the time of the fire are feared dead. Five bodies have been recovered but the IOC employees are still untraced. Many more are critical in the city's hospitals.

"It's not known whether these employees are dead but they were at the depot during the time of the fire. Those declared dead are people who had been admitted to various hospitals since Thursday," Rajasthan home secretary Pradip Sen said.

During the day, petroleum minister Murli Deora visited the site but could not throw much light on what exactly triggered the killer blaze and how it spun out of control. He was resigned to the fact that there was no way but to let the one lakh kilolitres of fuel in IOC's 11 tankers at the oil depot in Sitapura Industrial Area to just burn out.

Thirty-six hours on, the fire at Jaipur's Indian Oil depot is still blazing and officials say it could be a while before it is doused.

According to the officials last night the fire would take at least another 36 hours more to die down.

The fire has claimed at least 7 lives and injured over 150 so far. It broke out after about 50,000 kilolitres of fuel, mostly diesel, caught fire due to a pipeline leak at one of the tanks. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora visited the site on Friday.

Three more dead bodies were recovered from the burning Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot in south Jaipur on Saturday morning, taking the death toll to eight in the massive blaze that has been burning for almost two days.

Meanwhile, Army and Jaipur Municpal Corporation personnel are digging a ditch two feet deep and one foot wide around the depot premises in Sitapura Industrial Area. Superintendent of Police (Jaipur City East) Biju George Joseph said the channel would control the fire from spreading on the ground after it reached the bottom of the oil tanks.

The police said that the bodies, which were recovered on Saturday morning, were those of IOC employees. "Three dead bodies of IOC employees have been taken out of the campus," Biju George Joseph said.

The fire, which started on Thursday evening, died down in four of the 11 storage tanks in the wee hours but continued to rage in seven tanks which included three each of diesel and petrol, and one of kerosene, Chief Fire Officer Ishwar Lal Jat said.

Insurers are likely to take a hit of up to Rs 140 crore from the recent fire accident at the IOC marketing plant near Jaipur. The plant was insured for Rs 238 crore by ICICI Lombard as the lead insurer, while Oriental Insurance had the second-largest share, followed by Iffco Tokio and National Insurance with 10-15 per cent stake each.

Though General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) has a majority stake of 40 per cent as the re-insurer, the rest was re-insured with global reinsurers.

“The company has estimated a loss of Rs 300 crore, which includes reconstruction cost. Since our assets were not covered, insurers will pay for loss of products,” a senior IOC executive said, adding the claim from loss of products is around Rs 140 crore. The company will need another Rs 160 crore to rebuild the business destroyed in the fire.

Meanwhile, the company has moved the affected marketing business to other centers.

“It is still very early to assess the extent of damage caused by the fire. We are in constant touch with IOC. Surveyors will start with the process once the fire burns out,” ICICI Lombard Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Bhargav Dasgupta said.

The Rajasthan government today decided to relocate all oil depots at least 35km away from thickly populated areas, as the Jaipur fire raged on 48 hours after Thursday evening’s fuel tanker blasts.

The official death toll rose to eight with the recovery of three bodies from the Indian Oil depot premises, where six employees had been trapped and are feared dead.

The gases produced in the blaze, which has burnt about one crore litres of fuel and is expected to last another 10-12 hours, might later cause lung, eye and skin ailments in Jaipur, doctors have warned.

Environmentalists said the fire would have produced 100 crore litres of nitrogen and sulphur gases, which could result in acid rain over a stretch of 40km during the winter and might cause widespread destruction of trees and other vegetation. The carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide gases produced are polluting the environment and pose a danger to the health of residents, especially children.

Fire in an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot continued to burn for the third day running Sunday in this Rajasthan capital with the toll rising to 10 after recovery of two more bodies, officials said.The officials said they are waiting for the fuel in the tanks to burn out.

'We are just waiting for the fuel to burn...we cannot do much till then and according our information kerosene in three of the tanks has completely burnt', a district administration official said.

He said two tanks each of petrol and diesel are on fire and it may take some time for the stocks to burn out.

'Though it is difficult to say but it may take another 12-24 hours more for these products to burn up,' the official said.

Jaipur: The fire at an oil depot in Jaipur continued to burn for the third day running on Sunday with the death toll rising to 10 and suspicions strengthening that gross negligence caused the fire.

Sources tell CNN-IBN an oil pipeline of the Indian Oil Corporation sprung a leak at around 1600 hrs IST on Thursday after an IOC operator opened valves in the wrong order.

A fire broke at 1920 hrs IST because of the error, but the IOC missed the three hours it had to plug the leak effectively.

“Eyewitness accounts indicate negligence but we're waiting for the experts probe committee to submit its report,” said Ram Lal Jat, Rajasthan Minister for Petroleum and Environment on Sunday.

The Rajasthan High Court has asked the state and Central governments to explain why they have failed to douse the blaze in three days. As the fire blazes on, the government seems to have finally woken up to the threat of having oil depots close to residential areas.

Jitin Prasad, Union minister of state for petroleum, has said his ministry will hold a safety audit of all oil installations by December 31 and identify oil installations in populated areas, so that they can be shifted out.

IOC’s general manager in charge of Rajasthan will be replaced for the blaze in Jaipur.

On Sunday morning, a horizontal spread of the fire gave some anxious moments to the district administration when it took the adjoining Zenus Overseas in its grip. The fire spread to the roof of the private company, nearly 200 metres away from the IOC complex. However, firemen extinguished the flames in a couple of hours. There was no casualty as no one was present there. “The roof was continuously being cooled but due to high temperature and wind direction the flames spread,” said an official. 

On the other hand, minor blasts were heard from the compound as some barrels caught fire during the day. “Right now, four tanks in the complex continue to be on fire. But they will soon burn out itself. We have decided to allow people to move into Phase III of Sitapura Industrial Area and Phases I and II of the SEZ from Monday. These areas are at a distance of nearly one kilometre from the IOC complex and experts feel that it is safe to let them come now,” said Kuldeep Ranka, district collector, Jaipur.However, Ranka said no effort to douse the flames will be made immediately. “Experts have advised against it. We will allow the fire to burn till any fuel is left,” he said.