Report

Subject:                    India - 2 killed in Digboi Refinery Fire   

Date of Email report:  Fri 15/05/2009

Report Detail:

May 13 – A devastating fire that broke out in the Delayed Coker Unit of Digboi Refinery at 6.30 am today charred to death two persons. The deceased have been identified as Bashab Bhattacharjee, an operator of IOCL (AOD) and Kamal Saikia, a contractor’s employee. Both of them were reported to have gone up the plant on routine duty but as fire erupted suddenly below and furious flames leaped up, they fell down into the leaping flames and were charred instantly. The cause of the flare is yet to be ascertained.  An unconfirmed report stated that there had been another flare at around 10.30 on the preceding night but that flare was somehow brought under control. Another source maintained that the eruption took place due to an excessive pressure and temperature in the pipeline carrying liquid coke.  The fire service personnel of Digboi Refinery and additional fire tenders from the neighbouring industries such as Oil India Ltd, Duliajan, Assam Gas Company Ltd, Duliajan, and NEEPCO of Kathalguri and State Fire Service from Tinsukia were pressed into service immediately and they brought the fire under control. A press release from IOCL (AOD) stated that no process loss has taken place duty to the fire and all other operating units of the refinery are running normally.

The release added that a high-level committee has been constituted to inquire into the cause of the fire and the extent of damage is being assessed. Meanwhile, a devastating fire in the Digboi Oil Field drain running through the Muliabari area of Digboi Township broke out at around 11.15 am engulfing almost a kilometre long stretch of human habitation on both sides of the nullah. The nullah carries crude oil seepage and other affluents. The local people stated that fire broke out first in the PNGB Road area and within a few minutes it ran upto the oil field location posing a dangerous threat to the entire locality. Several houses and a few business establishments are reported to have been gutted due to this fire. The entire Muliabari area was under a dark holocaust of dense smoke. The cause of fire is yet to be known. The Deputy Commissioner of Tinsukia, Dr KK Dwivedi, and the SDO Civil of Margherita, Partha Pratim Mazumdar, visited the site and took stock of the situation. The fire tenders from IOCL (AOD), OIL, Assam Petro-chemicals Ltd of Namrup, the State Fire Service from Tinsukia and from other neighbouring industries jumped into action of fire fighting promptly and brought the fire under control.

14th May - At least three people were killed and about two dozen others injured in two powerful explosions at Armenia’s largest chemical plant on Thursday. The first explosion rocked the Yerevan-based Nairit plant late in the afternoon, sending plumes of black smoke billowing skywards.
Company officials said it occurred at one of the plant’s facilities used for storing a chemical substance that produces synthetic rubber, the company’s main product. The explosions reportedly followed a huge fire at a chloroprene production shop at the plant. The two explosions could be heard by residents living in the nearby area. Firefighters and ambulances were rushed to the scene shortly afterwards. Police blocked adjacent streets on the southern outskirts of Yerevan by the time a second blast occurred later in the day. The fire rated as ‘huge’ was reportedly localized. Nikolay Grigorian, a spokesman for Armenia’s Rescue Service, told RFE/RL at the scene that the blasts killed three people and left another unaccounted for. He said two others were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Seventeen firefighters and other rescue workers suffered burns and smoke poisoning while trying to put out the resulting fire, added the official.The causes of the accident, apparently the most serious of its kind since the Soviet collapse, were not immediately clear. Both Grigorian and a Nairit spokeswoman, Anush Harutiunian, insisted that it does not pose serious environmental risks.“The accident will not cause serious ecological problems,”

Harutiunian told RFE/RL. “The fire has been localized and there are no dangerous emissions.” The chemical giant periodically faces emergency situations blamed on its obsolete Soviet-era equipment and poor safety standards. In one such instance, two Nairit reservoirs containing inflammable industrial waste caught fire that raged for two days before being extinguish by firefighters in December 2006. Nobody was seriously hurt at the time. The latest accident came just one month after Nairit resumed its work following a nearly five-month stoppage blamed by its management on the global economic crisis. The plant employing more than 1,000 people at present had struggled to survive even before the crisis despite numerous changes of ownership and management. It is currently owned by the British-registered firm Rhinoville Property Limited.

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