In Jamnagar, fire breaks out at Reliance India Limited refinery; 2 killed, 6 injured

Police said the accident took place in the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) in the domestic tariff area of the refinery complex around 3 am. “During the maintenance shutdown, the workers were grinding a pipe when spark from the grinder lit up residual hydrocarbon gas and led to a flash fire. Eight workers were injured in the fire and two of them died later,” Jamnagar SP Pradip Sejul said.

The SP said that they had ordered suspension of maintenance work in the unit for the purpose of investigation.
The six injured were also part of the maintenance team. They were identified as grinder Pappu Kumar Prasad (30), Tejilal Thakur (35), Badrilal Dangi (33), Pushpendra Pandey, fitter Shivji Chauhan (30) and gas-cutter operator Sharmaji Pandey (38). Police said that Sandhu was from Haryana while Amrutlal was from Vadodara. Most injured were natives of other states, police said.

Medical records at GG Hospital show that Prasad and Sharmaji Pandey had suffered around 57 per cent burns while Thakur suffered 74 per cent burns. The remaining three – Dangi, Pushpendra Pandey and Chauhan – had suffered more than 85 per cent burns and were critical. Later in the afternoon, Prasad, Thakur and Sharmaji were referred to a private hospital for further treatment while the remaining three were shifted to another private hospital in Rajkot.

The SP said a case of accidental death had been registered at Meghpar police station. “At this stage of investigation, we are not sure if the incident is due to any criminal negligence. Therefore, we have registered a case of accidental deaths,” said Sejul.

Meanwhile, in a statement, RIL said that the unit where the fire broke out was shut down for maintenance and that the fire had been put out. “There was an unfortunate flash fire in one of the units under a planned maintenance shutdown in our DTA refinery at Jamnagar. While the Reliance fire brigade extinguished the fire swiftly, this has resulted in injuries to some contract workers who are being provided necessary medical treatment. All operations of the refinery continue to be normal,” the statement read.