THE FIRE that broke out at the Indian Oil fuel depot on late Thursday evening, is just a reminder of India’s inability to deal with fire accidents. A massive explosion in the Sitapura Industrial area, near Jaipur, led to an uncontrollable fire which engulfed 12 huge tanks of fuel. Eight people have been declared dead, as two charred bodies were recovered early Saturday morning. Around 150 people have been injured.
Several employees of IOC are still missing and the search is on. While the fire may have burned out in four of the tanks, it continues to burn in seven others. Officials and firefighters are waiting for the fire to extinguish by itself, even as a five km radius around the site, has been marked as danger zone.
The pink city was engulfed in a smoky haze in the concluding weekend of October, as the fire raged while helpless firefighting officials watched. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, has announced a five member committee headed by MB Lal, a former Chairman and Managing Director at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, to investigate the cause of the fire, as well as, to suggest safety measures for the future.
He also told the media that fire tenders are unable to go near the burning tanks while the blaze continues and they are waiting for the fuel to be burnt. What is interesting to note here is, the fact that fire fighting mechanisms of both IOC and the state seemed to have failed as little was done in terms of controlling the fire.
Experts believe that the fire could have been controlled at an earlier stage and the damage could have been minimised. While officials claimed that IOC’s internal fire fighting mechanism failed to operate, some believe that the mechanism was outdated and safety measures must have been neglected over the years.
When the fire started on Thursday, water could have been collected and used to fill up pits around the site. Also high pressure pumps could have been used to douse the flames. The Jaipur fire brigade was caught napping as, it did not have the requisite infrastructure to handle a catastrophe of this nature.
This is one of India’s biggest industrial accidents after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Officials watched as fuel and infrastructure worth Rs 300 crores went up in flames. Why were the authorities unable to deal with the disaster?
A month back, six firemen died of smoke inhalation after being stuck in a lift in Thane. It is common knowledge that lifts have to be avoided in case of a fire then why didn’t fire officials follow the basic ground rules themselves?
In 2004 after the fire at a Kumbhakonam school, where 78 children lost their lives, schools across the country were asked to update their fire safety equipment and to introduce fire drills. With time, they lapsed back into a state of lethargy.
In 2008 alone, fires occurred across the country. 2,500 shops were gutted at a wholesale market in Burrabazar, Kolkata in January. A short circuit led to a fire on the Gautami Express killing 32, near Hyderabad in August. A bus carrying pilgrims caught fire near Firozabad, killing 63 in December.
Every fire invokes a sense of Déjà vu. It doesn’t take more than a short circuit or a misplaced cigarette butt to start a fire. What matters is how good we are at combating it. These events have shown, that India is still not fully equipped for fire fighting. Are we waiting for a major disaster before something is done? Indian fire fighters need better training, better equipment and more recognition. Is the government listening?
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