A major fire broke out at the Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) Digboi Refinery in Assam’s Tinsukia district on Wednesday morning. An IOC official and a labourer were killed.
A release from the refinery said a blast took place in a pipeline at 6.30 a.m. and a fire broke out. Basal Bhattacharjee, an operator of the refinery, and Kamal Saikia were killed. It took several fire tenders to douse the fire.
The blast is suspected to be due to poor maintenance of the pipeline. The release said operations at the 100-year-old refinery, one of Asia’s oldest, weren’t affected.
Later at 10.30 a.m., a second fire broke out in Maliabari, an area in the the refinery township, when oil from the pipeline spilled over into a drain here. Several houses were gutted and 35 families affected. OIC has promised them compensation.