Navi Mumbai:
A massive fire that engulfed an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot in Navi Mumbai on Monday night was doused after eight hours. No casualties were, however, reported.
(See Pics)The fire broke out shortly after midnight. Twenty fire engines were rushed to the spot to prevent the fire from spreading.
"The fire started at around midnight. We decided a strategy that we will not allow the fire to spread. The intensity of the heat was too much. Somehow, we could control the fire and the spread of fire and now the fire is absolutely under control, said the Regional Fire Officer, Devendra Potphode.
The depot in Taloja stored lube oil but had no stock of crude oil. The plant blends and fills lubricants in small cans and drums, besides filling specialty lubes. It operates on single shift (8 am to 5 pm), so was shut when the fire broke out. The fire gutted a shed storing packed lubricants, but no person was injured.
A fire brigade official said the blaze began from containers containing lubricant oil. "Thousands of drums with 200 litres capacity each caught fire and destroyed around 40,000 litres of lubricant oil", the official said. It was noticed by security personnel deployed at the plant. Preliminary reports indicate that the cause of the fire could be a short circuit.
In October 2009, at least ten people were killed and more than a hundred were injured in a similar fire at the Indian Oil Corporation depot on the outskirts of Jaipur. It took more than a week for this fire to die out. (With PTI inputs)