Incident Report

Subject:            One Killed, 4 Injured In Fire At Mangalore Refinery          

Date of Email report:   Sat 29/10/2011

Report Detail:

Mangalore/New Delhi, Oct 18:

One person was killed and four others were injured today when paint vapours caused a fire at an oil storage tank, which was being painted, at the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).  The fire occurred at an under-construction crude oil storage tank in Mangalore, being built to expand MRPL’s capacity to 15 million tonnes a year from the current 11.8 million tonnes.  The injured have been admitted to a local hospital.  The paint job was being carried out by a contractor, Offshore Infrastructure Ltd, and the workers on the paint job were employed by it. “Paint vapours seem to have ignited the fire,” MRPL Managing Director U K Basu told PTI from Mangalore.  “The paint job was being carried out by a contractor at the construction site outside the refinery area. The refinery is unaffected,” he added. Basu said the contractor has been asked to submit a detailed report on the accident.  A group of workers was applying paint to a huge over-ground crude oil tank as part of the third phase expansion of MRPL. Offshore Infrastructure Ltd is building three tanks for MRPL at the site. A spark from nearby ‘cutting work’ led to the accident.

Additional Documentation:

Ironically the company recently posted a job advert for a fire safety manager!!!  http://www.timesjobs.com/job-detail/Engg-project-Mgmt-site-Engg-Civil-Engg-job-in-Mangalore-Refinery-and-Petrochemicals-Limited-Delhi-jobid-8DKedkMlro1zpSvf+uAgZw==