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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, July 13: A major industrial disaster was averted after a fire broke out at the naphtha processing plant of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation refinery at Mahul, Chembur this morning. However, there were no casualties.
The incident took place at the plant which processes the highly combustible naptha. According to the plant’s manager B Mandal, the fire broke out in a multistate centrifugal pump of the naptha cracking plant at around 8 am.
Though there were no structural damages the fire had engulfed two 118 HP motors and their pumps. The connecting pipes around the machinery were mangled due to the heat, Mandal said.
While the fire brigade managed to contained the blaze within 15 minutes, the cooling operations were on till late in the afternoon.
The BPCL’s General Manager R P Singh said that preliminary investigations had revealed that a leakage in the mechanical seal in one of the pumps must have ignited the highly combustible naptha which was already in contact with some of the hot linesrunning across the plant, he added.Meanwhile, the oil major has set up an in-house committee to inquire into the entire incident.
“We have not suffered any production loss due to the fire and the aromatic plant is running at full capacity,” claimed Singh. The naptha cracking plant has a production capacity of 700 metric tonnes per day and the processed naptha is used as feedstock for the aromatic plant also known as benzene plant. The two plants are located about 400 meters from each other.
Due to the highly combustible nature of naptha and processed hydrocarbons produced in the plant a major siren was sounded to clear up the entire complex spread over an area of 450 acres in Mahul.
Fire brigade sources disclosed that nine fire engines and three tankers were pressed in service to contain the blaze. Besides, fire tenders from Mumbai Port Trust and RCF were also pressed into action.
