20150509 India Wadi petrol pump gutted as oil tanker catches fire
India May 08 2015 “Other”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Wadi petrol pump gutted as oil tanker catches fire
Updated: 2015-05-10-03:57
Apprehension of an explosion triggered panic after Hindustan Petroleum’s petrol pump on Amravati Road at Wadi got engulfed in flames on Saturday leading to loss of property worth around a couple of crores, including cash around Rs4 lakh. The explosion could have left behind an impact of at least two dozen improvised explosives devices (IED) going off simultaneously. Police cordoned off the locality and blocked the highway for safety for more than two hours. No one was hurt in the incident.
The pump, owned by transporter Inderjitsingh Baweja, caught fire when an oil tanker was being unloaded into the underground storage tank. The pump staffers, most of whose bikes and mobile phones were gutted, had tried to fight the fire with the available firefighting equipment but in vain. They could not operate firefighting gear and fled the spot. It’s learnt that there were not many customers when the fire broke out. Some of the workers were busy having lunch while others were on-duty when the incident took them by surprise. The tanker driver, Babar Khan, too fled after unsuccessfully trying to douse the fire.
The reason behind the fire is still being probed by different agencies. The flames reached beyond the roof and stretched sideways to the office chambers which were completely damaged to the extent they turned into mere charcoals. The petrol and diesel dispensing units too were gutted. Fortunately, the flames did not reach the underground tanks where hundreds of litres of both petrol and diesel were stored.
Around 10,000 litres of petrol, some of it already unloaded while the rest still in the two compartments of tanker, was burned in the fire. Another 10,000 litres of diesel remained unaffected in the two other compartments of the tanker. The tanker, which came from Khapri oil depot of HP, too was completely gutted down. Many from the vicinity fled apprehending an explosion in the tanker or underground storage which could have led to unprecedented tragedy.
Chief fire officer Rajendra Uchake of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) stated that the fire could have started due to static electricity coming in contact with the petroleum vapour while unloading at a high atmospheric temperature. “In the advance stage of fire fighting, we used aqueous film forming foam to create a blanket effect on the petrol which would keep it coated for at least four hours disallowing to form vapours,” he said. Seven fire tenders from city and one from MIDC brought the fire under control in less than an hour ensuring that there was no further loss.
Senior officials of HP company, who visited the spot, argued the static electricity theory stating that flames were found creeping up from the chambers down. “There is no oxygen in the chambers below which intensifies the mystery behind the fire,” he said.
Web Source: The times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Wadi-petrol-pump-gutted-as-oil-tanker-catches-fire/articleshow/47217878.cms