Kolkata (West Bengal): A fire broke out on the premises of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) near here on Tuesday afternoon, when the plant was undergoing maintenance. No one was injured in the incident, a police officer said.
Sources in the Haldia unit said the fire broke out when the naphtha tank was being cleaned as part of maintenance work, and some chemical spilled over. Fire tenders from the nearby MCPI plant joined the HPL team to arrest the flames, they said. However, the fire was brought under control by the fire tenders after almost 1.5 hours since it broke out. No casualties have been reported so far.
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According to eyewitnesses, at around 3.30 PM on Tuesday, people saw flames gushing out of the naphtha tanker number 3 of HPL. The fire started spreading quickly because of the presence of certain inflammable chemicals. However, all of them were safely evacuated.
It is apprehended that an electrical short circuit was the reason for the fire. The responsible production team has been suspended for the time being.
Both HPL and MCPI are owned by Purnendu Chatterjee of the TCG group. Last September, nearly 15 people were injured when a fire broke out at the naphtha cracker facility of HPL.
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(Agency Inputs)
