Day after Haldia refinery fire, IOC team, police begin probe
đ´ Sources said that after primary investigation by the district police, it was found there was a leak in a naptha gas pipeline may have led to the blaze.
Shankari Majhi, the mother of one of those injured in the blaze, at their residence in Haldia on Wednesday. Her son Debabrata is undergoing treatment at a Kolkata hospital.Partha Paul
A day hours after a massive fire broke out at its refinery in Haldia, a high-level Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) team arrived from New Delhi on Wednesday to probe the cause of the blaze that killed three persons and caused injuries to 44 others.
Even as IOC authorities are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the incident, sources said that after primary investigation by the district police, it was found there was a leak in a naptha gas pipeline may have led to the blaze.
Youâve Read Your Free Stories For Now
Sign up and keep reading more stories that matter to you.
Eyewitnesses also claimed that the fire started at the naptha gas pipeline of the plant.
Sources at the company said that while the cause of the flash fire was not yet clear, the shutdown process that was being undertaken at the refinery, included the purging of various chambers, and âa pocket of motor spirit vapour may have been left behind due to some process going awryâ.
Later, a forensic team of the West Bengal Police went to the spot and collected evidence. East Medinipur SP K Amarnath said, âIn a preliminary investigation, we found that there may have been some misconduct. We are investigating everything and after that we will determine the persons responsible for this.â
Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal.
Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur.
He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More
