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Fire breaks out after gas leak from Andhra borewell, say officials
The incident happened at Sivakodu village of Razole mandal (revenue block), when a farmer, owning an aquaculture pond, switched on the motor to pump water
Fire erupted from a borewell after a stream of natural gas gushed out of the soil and got ignited due to switching of the motor in Andhra Pradesh’s Dr B R Ambedkar Konaseema district on Saturday morning, a district fire official said.
The incident happened at Sivakodu village of Razole mandal (revenue block), when a farmer, owning an aquaculture pond, switched on the motor to pump water. “Along with water, a stream of natural gas gushed out of the pump and caught fire and the flames went up to the height of 20 feet,” district fire officer Parthasarathy told HT.
He said it was a five-year-old borewell, located away from human habitations. “The entire area has only aquaculture ponds. So, there was no threat to the people in the nearby villages,” he said.
Soon after receiving information of the fire, the local police along with fire personnel and officials of Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) rushed to the spot to extinguish the fire. The area was barricaded to prevent the fire from damaging the adjacent fish ponds.
“The area is closer to the Krishna-Godavari basin and the ONGC and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) gas pipelines pass at a distance from the spot [place of incident]. However, the gas leak leakage has nothing to do with these pipelines,” the fire officer said.
He said the fire was brought under control by evening and the borewell was then capped. “The area has natural gas deep in the layers of soil. Perhaps, casing of the borewell pipe in the soil might have broken, resulting in the gas entering the pipe and gushing out of the borewell,” Parthasarthy added.
