A massive fire broke out at Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) on Sunday night triggering panic though none were reported injured. “Right now it’s quit difficult to assess the actual loss but it may be assumed in several crores, said an official.
The fire broke out on Sunday night at about 10.55 pm, engulfed Combustible Mixer Preparation Section (CMPS) of Tar Distillation Unit inside BSL, informed an eyewitness. The stiff struggle of fire brigades and firefighters, fire got controlled after six hours which destroyed goods and plant unit value in several crore, said an eyewitness.
More than 10 firefighting vehicles of BSL, Jharkhand Government and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) along workers joined hands for the rescue. Firemen struggled whole night to get it controlled from spreading as flames were very high to about 30-40 feet. After a long struggle till Monday morning the fire tenders succeeded in dousing the fire, said another eyewitness. “We are yet to know the actual reason behind the eruption of fire in the unit, said a Fire official. Right now it’s’ quite difficult to access the actual loss but it may be assumed in crores,” he said. Last year also a major fire was broke out at Hot Strip Mill (HSM) in Bokaro Steel Plant and no injuries or loss of life was reported. At midnight (around 12.40 PM) on 6 March, suddenly fire broke out in the three electronic transformers installed outside at the HMS for its finishing stand. The blaze broke out in transformer after a technical fault.
This transformer controls the HMS and contains huge oil. After the stiff struggle of fire tenders, the fire got controlled in several hours which was also created a huge loss in crores. After the fire, production at Mill has been stopped over a week.
Meanwhile, BSL has set up a high level inquiry committee to ascertain the cause behind the eruption of fire. Inspectorate of Factories and Disaster Management Department also initiated the inquiry. Union leaders including Sangram Singh, B K Choudhary and others raised concern over the incident.
