Hummingbird News Desk
HALDIA, 3 AUGUST: A major fire broke out at the Naptha Storage Tank beside the Naptha Cracker Unit of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd in Haldia this afternoon triggering panic among the employees.
The incident occurred at around 3 pm. No one has been injured so far and employees engaged in the Naptha units have already been evacuated safely, a police officer said.
Huge plumes of black smoke were seen billowing out of the area as the fire raged on Tuesday afternoon. Fire brigade officials said the fire was a Level 3 blaze and eight fire tenders including three foams have been pressed into the service to douse the flames.
“The fire broke out in the Naptha Storage Tank beside the Naptha Cracker Unit, where several inflammable and highly inflammable things were kept. It was tagged a ‘level-3’ (major) fire,” a fire brigade official said.
Fire tenders from nearby MCPI plant joined the HPL team to arrest the flames, he said. Both HPL and MCPI are owned by Purnendu Chatterjee of the TCG group.
A company source said firefighters are trying to protect the oil pipelines and oil tankers. Shop owners beside the plant have been asked to leave the site and the police officials also started miking to inform the employees asking them to come out from the plant units.
Last September, nearly 15 people were injured when a fire broke out at the Naptha Cracker facility of HPL.
Tags: #HPL #HaldiaPetrochemicals #Fire #NapthaCrackerUnit
