Fire breaks out on Assam river, ‘environmental disaster,’ screams Twitter

Thankfully, the fire got doused on its own.

A scary video of a river on fire made its way onto Twitter and now it has raised concerns among people about environment. The massive fire erupted on a tributary of Brahmaputra river. Turns out, it was caused due to leakage from pipelines. Thankfully, the fire got doused on its own.

Plumes of smoke rise over a small stream of the Burhi Dihing River. (PTI)

“Fire on river. Burhi Dihing river caught fire at Naharkatia, Assam, due to oil pipe blast in last three days. But no one cares,” wrote a Twitter user and shared the video.

People had lots of thoughts and they expressed the same while commenting on the video. While some wrote that it’s an environmental disaster, others were concerned about the incident not being a part of the mainstream news.

“Shocked that it is not part of mainstream media,” wrote a Twitter user. “And how it happened? Rather it’d ask, who did it?” commented another. “An environmental disaster,” wrote a third. “OMG! Stop this insanity now,” commented a fourth.

Here’s how others reacted:

Due to a mechanical issue a crude oil pipeline the Oil India Limited (OIL) got ruptured and it caused spillage on Burhi Dihing river in Assam’s Dibrugarh.

“It appears that some miscreants had set fire to the oil floating on the river. There have been no casualties and the blaze got doused on its own. The situation is under control,” said an official.

OIL has also initiated actions to recover and clean the crude oil from the affected site, the official further added.

“An enquiry committee has been set up to find out the underlying root causes of the incident and suggest remedial measures. Presently, normal operations have resumed and all leakages have been rectified and crude oil is being received from installations at CTF, Duliajan,” he added.

(With inputs from PTI)