Major Fire At Haldia Petrochemicals Pipeline

Synopsis

In the early hours of Tuesday, a fire in a naphtha carrying pipeline at Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) in the East Midnapore district of West Bengal claimed the lives of several workers and injured a large number, including some critically, at the plant.

Sequence of Events

The fire started around 4 a.m. to 5 a.m., and suddenly the fire surged over the pipeline and caused panic in the industrial facility. The fire started with highly flammable naphtha and spread quickly as workers suffered burn injuries amidst all the chaos.

The number of injured has changed through the morning, from 10 to some 20, commonplace of breaking industrial-accident coverage, on account of the fluid nature of it, a senior police officer in East Midnapore said, stating that six were in critical condition were being rushed to Kolkata.

Victims were rushed to Haldia Sub-divisional Hospital, Tamluk State Hospital for immediate treatment and the most injured were shifted to specialised hospitals in Kolkata.

Twelve fire tenders raced to the scene and were able to put out the fire, although initially, the fire did not seem to be contained. Firefighters were still battling the blaze after an hour and a half of heavy fighting.

A suspected trigger: Fuel theft

In the company's official reply, it gave a preliminary explanation. A statement by HPL admits the accident, says it has condoled with the victims and is ready to cooperate with the local authorities and has also said that the fire could have started near an unauthorized naphtha theft point in the plant vicinity. It would be too early to determine who is responsible or make any further comments until the inquiry has concluded

Establishing a theft angle to the theft could suggest a long-standing and largely overlooked weakness in fuel-handling facilities around the country – the tapping of pipelines, carrying volatile petroleum products, which is often conducted by organised rackets operating near the periphery of refinery premises in India.

Naphtha, which is a light, highly flammable distillate used as a feedstock for making petrochemicals and as a fuel for blending, will catch fire easily on exposure to even small sparks, and any unauthorised tampering with pipelines used for naphtha transport poses a serious risk.

Wider Disruption

The impact of the fire was felt outside the refinery boundaries. The blaze caused disruptions to train services in the vicinity of the facility and the flames had started spreading to nearby residential buildings before being partially brought under control, the report in the Republic World said, highlighting the danger associated with these facilities when safety fence is compromised.

What Comes Next

Authorities now expect to review HPL's pipeline security measures, the response time of on-site fire safety systems and if the suspected theft point had been previously marked. A formal cause likely requires forensic and metallurgical test of the ruptured area of the pipeline as well as police investigation into alleged theft racket.