A SPECTACULAR FIRE AT A FUEL DEPOT in Jaipur, India, has been burning for over 48 hours. The blaze extended from tank to tank until almost all of them were fully ablaze and as firefighters work along they are discovering the bodies of victims continually. So far, nine bodies have been found and at least six more are missing. More than 150 employees of the Indian Oil Company facility have been injured.
The fire began on Thursday evening around 7:15 pm and soon spread to all 11 petroleum storage tanks in the facility. The size of the fire is beyond the capabilities of the Jaipur fire departmet despite the presence of Army firefighting assistance. They are waiting for the fires to burn the tanks down to low levels where they can begin applying foam layers on the fires. They are also constructing a trench around the fire site to contain any ground fire started by the burning tanks.
There is no word yet on what started the fire.
Indian tv network NDTV has some excellent video of the fire at its height. They are also fanning the flames by accusing the IOC of being careless and reckless with their fire prevention activities in this video:
The Times of India brings in some “experts” to explain the situation:
The incident has raised several questions regarding safety measures followed at the IOC depot and the disaster management arrangements in Rajasthan. While those at the IOC depot seemed unprepared to tackle the fire, the state government’s disaster management team was also caught unawares and on the backfoot.
“Everybody was caught napping. According to government norms, every depot should be equipped with enough safety measures to handle fire in all combustible goods that are stored there. The depot must have been flouting norms, otherwise the fire would not have spread so much. And it is the failure on the department’s part that it could do nothing but just stand and watch as gallons of fuel just burnt away,” another expert claimed.
Experts feel the cause of the fire could be anything — from a leak in the tanks to a short circuit. “Anything could have caused the fire, but only negligence could lead to such a widespread disaster,” one of them said. “Why let a fire reach the uncontrollable stage? There are ways of handling such fires and the authorities seemed to have done little,” said an expert from Delhi.
According to fire technology experts, it is hard to believe that the city’s firefighters and authorities let the fire spread to this extent. Even after the fire turned uncontrollable, the authorities were required to take some measures to ensure that the damage was restricted.
Read the entire article HERE.
A governmental investigation has already begun as the fire is still burning. Firegeezer will keep an eye out for any updates.
