Vapi fire tragedy: Unable to ascertain cause of fire as company removed evidence from site, says NGT panel

Further the committee observed that there were certain aspects where the company was “lackadaisical”. These include, the unit not implementing leak detection and repair programme, not mentioning details on spent solvent generation, and not maintaining logs on movement of trucks, tankers or other goods vehicles entering or exiting the unit’s premises. The committee also observed that fire extinguishers at some of the spots were inaccessible and that the company had not reported on the quantity of disposal of concentrated effluents, distillation residues etc over the years.

A blast at Ven Petrochem and Pharma (India) Pvt Ltd unit at GIDC Sarigam in Valsad on February 27 had caused a fire and collapse of a building, killing four people and injuring two others. The NGT had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident through media reports and issued notice to the GPCB on March 1.

A site visit was conducted by the committee members on April 26 and 28. The NGT had directed the committee to undertake a visit to the site, to ascertain the cause of the fire, to suggest measures to adopt in future to prevent such incidents and to suggest manner of utilisation of Rs 25 lakh deposited by the company as interim environment compensation.

The committee comprised Valsad district collector Kshipra Agre, regional director of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Prasoon Gargava and regional officer of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) A O Trivedi.

During the committee’s visit, it was found that the project proponent (PP — Ven Petrochem and Pharma) “removed all scrap, residues, materials, leftovers, remains and evidences from the site before the site visit of the committee, even after knowing the order passed by Hon’ble NGT. The PP also reportedly not obtained any permission either from Hon’ble NGT or any of the authorities to do so…Therefore the committee could not make precise inferences with respect to the cause of the accident from the visit.”

Based on secondary sources such as discussion with industry representative, plant personnel, security guards etc, along with discussion with officials, and review of CCTV footage from a nearby industrial unit, the committee has said in its report that the “most potential probable” cause of the fire could be due to occurrence of solvent cloud burst which may have occurred due to accidental spillage or leakage within the area.

According to the committee, an accidental leakage may lead to increase in partial vapour pressure of the solvent and can be potentially explosive in the presence of a frictional source, and sparks or static charge or heat may lead to violent explosion of the vapours of the solvent.

“Hence considering the above findings, the lackadaisical approach of the industry cannot be considered lesser than the potential probable cause of incident due to occurrence of solvent cloud burst probably due to accidental spillage/leakage,” the committee concluded.