Fire Brigade takes 11 hours to douse flames

Mumbai: The massive fire that broke out in the hydrocarbon plant of Bharat Petroleum Company Limited (BPCL) refinery was finally doused after nearly 11 hours, but not before posing some serious challenges to the fire fighters of Mumbai Fire Brigade, which played a major role in controlling the fire.

“The refinery area had a lot of flammable material, so there was every chance that fire could spread around causing more havoc. Hence, after reaching the spot we decided to make sure that it remains confined to small area and does not spread to other parts of the plant,” said a senior fire official.

Along with the Mumbai fire brigade, the fire fighting operations were carried out jointly by BPCL’s own fire-fighting team, HPCL, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, RCF and Mazgaon Dock fire brigades.

Seven monitors of fixed fire-fighting installations and four hose lines of fire engines were being used to contain the level three fire that required immediate evacuation.

Even though the fire was brought under control by 6.30 pm on Wednesday, the fire brigade officials allowed controlled burning of remaining hydrocarbon. After it was exhausted, the fire was completely doused at 1.50 am.

“We wanted the entire stock to finish first due to the presence of hydrocarbon there. After it was finished, the extinguishing become more convenient,” said the official.

Special brigade

To tackle chemical disasters in the city, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has decided to procure a special purpose utility vehicle for hazardous material handling at a cost of Rs 8 crore. According to fire officials, the machine is specially designed to handle any kind of chemical disaster. It will be imported from Slovenia in Europe in next couple of months.