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4 killed in blaze after gas leak at ONGC Uran plant
Four people — a senior official of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and three jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) — died after a fire
Four people — a senior official of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and three jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) — died after a fire broke out at a gas-processing plant owned by ONGC in Uran, around 50km east of Mumbai, early on Tuesday.
Three other CISF jawans sustained injuries and they were admitted to a private hospital in Uran.
The ONGC officer was identified as CN Rao, 54, resident production superintendent. The CISF jawans were head constable E Nayaka, 54, constable MK Paswan, 33, and constable SP Khusawaha, 26. All three of them belonged to the CISF’s fire wing.
The Uran police said the incident took place before 7am, when around 65 employees were working inside the ONGC plant.
“Around 6.50am, our officers in Uran received a call from the ONGC control room, saying that there was a gas leak at their plant. Our officers, both from the security and fire wing, reached the spot in some time. After assessing the situation with the ONGC employees, they wore their breathing apparatus and entered the area of leakage. The ONGC officer also accompanied them and they managed to seal the spot from where the gas was leaking. Unfortunately, there was an explosion and all four of them got burnt,” said Hemendra Singh, public relations officer, CISF.
“Three other CISF jawans, including an inspector and two constables, sustained injuries and they have been admitted to a private hospital in Uran. They are now out of danger,” Singh said.
Fifteen fire tenders from ONGC, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Turst (JNPT), and the fire stations owned by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) were rushed to the spot. The police and CISF commandos cordoned off the area to a radius of around 2km till the firefighting was over. The ONGC said the fire, which singed the leaves of the trees on the other side of the road, was doused in two hours.
According to ONGC employees, offshore oil is stabilised in the plant and then dispatched to clients. Similarly, offshore gas is processed to make LPG, fertilisers, among others.
“There were around 65 employees when the accident took place on Tuesday. During the general shifts, more than 1,000 people work there, including contractual employees,” said an ONGC employee.
Dr Sonal Dubal, medical officer from the hospital, said, “Prima facie it appears that the deceased had died on the spot. Even as their bodies reached the hospital before 9am, we could conduct the post-mortems only in the evening as a huge amount of time was spent in doing the panchnama. The family members of the ONGC officer and other CISF officials identified the deceased. However, we have collected their DNA samples for correct identification and chemical analysis.”
The Uran police have registered an accidental death case.
The deceased were sent to the state-owned Indira Gandhi Hospital in Uran for post-mortems. According to sources in the state-owned Indira Gandhi Hospital in Uran, the deceased suffered over 90% burns.
“Fire broke out in a storm water drainage in Uran plant early morning. It was successfully doused within two hours by the firefighting team. #ONGC ’s robust crisis mitigation preparedness helped put off this major fire in a very short time,” ONGC had tweeted in the morning.
In another tweet, it said, “We are extremely sad to have lost 4 precious lives — 3 CISF jawans and a senior ONGC officer — in the unfortunate fire in the Uran Plant today, in spite of valiant efforts made to contain the blaze in less than 2 hours. #ONGC expresses its heartfelt condolence to bereaved families.”
