Fire at Bokaro Steel Plant, 23 injured
RANCHI: Twenty-three workers, including some contract labourers of Bokaro Steel Plant, were hospitalised on Saturday morning after they were exposed to fumes that erupted due to a fire in the mixed gas supply pipeline of the hot strip mill of the steel plant in the district, officials said.
The injured people who have been admitted to Bokaro General Hospital are out of danger, and their condition is stable, they said. According to the officials, the incident took place at around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday when a fire erupted in the mixed gas supply pipeline due to naphtha, sulphur, and other inflammable substances lying in the pipeline coming into contact with a fire spark during the ongoing cutting and pasting fitting work being carried out as part of pre-scheduled maintenance work.
The rescue team of BSL, which reached the site immediately after the incident, evacuated all workers from the site and rushed the fume-affected persons to Bokaro General Hospital. Senior officials of Bokaro district administration, led by Vijaya Jadhav, Bokaro deputy commissioner, also reached the site and took details of the ongoing rescue operations from the BSL officials.
Meanwhile, the Bokaro district administration also sought a report from the Bokaro Steel Limited administration.
A press release issued by Bokaro Steel Limited stated, “The mixed gas pipeline in SAIL/Bokaro Steel Plant, through which gas is supplied to the Re-Heating Furnace of the Hot Strip Mill, is undergoing scheduled maintenance work. The pipeline is under shutdown; hence, there was no gas in it. As part of the maintenance work, a compensator in the pipeline was also to be changed and during this work, in the morning, residual naphtha, sulfur, tar, etc. inside the pipeline, which are all highly inflammable, caught fire, resulting in a lot of smoke which spread through the pipeline.”