Major fire at Indian oil depot, 6 killed, 150 injured (1st Lead)

Oct 30, 2009, 7:48 GMT

   New Delhi - A huge fire engulfed an oil depot in India's north-western state of Rajasthan Friday, leaving six people dead and nearly 150 injured, while authorities evacuated an estimated 500,000 people from the area, media reports said.

   The blaze at the state-run Indian Oil Corporation depot located on the outskirts of state capital Jaipur started on Thursday evening and engulfed at least 11 tanks containing 8 million litres of oil, the NDTV network reported.

   The fire also caused two tankers to explode, shaking the surrounding area, the report said.

   Television images showed the blaze still raging some 16 hours after it began, with thick black smoke and flames as high as 9 metres rising from the depot.

   Government officials confirmed six deaths but said no foreign tourists were among the victims, the report said. The desert state of Rajasthan is among India's most popular holiday destinations.

   Six staffers of the IOC, India's second-largest refiner, were still trapped and chances of their survival were bleak, the IANS news agency reported.

   The wounded were admitted to hospitals in Jaipur and half of the victims had sustained burn injuries.

   Many of the injuries were reported from nearby areas and were caused by the shattering of window panes, officials said.

   Nearly 500,000 locals in the vicinity were evacuated overnight and power was cut across the region as a precautionary measure.

   Several industrial areas, homes and hospitals in the Sitapura industrial area around the depot were destroyed due to the blaze and an area within a 5-kilometre radius of the site was designated as a 'danger zone.'

   The fire was of great intensity and the flames could be seen from a distance of over 15 kilometres.

   'I work in a factory very near to the area. As soon as the fire broke out, we rushed out of our factory. We also heard a couple of loud explosions,' a worker, Ram Kumar, told the IANS.

   India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora traveled to Jaipur and said 300 soldiers from the army as well as fire experts were assisting firefighters and the local agencies.

   He said it would take another day or two before it was brought under control as it was too dangerous to approach the inferno.

   'There is no option but to let the fuel burn. It will take a day or two before the fire could be brought under control,' Deora told reporters.

   The government announced compensation of between 500,000 rupees to 100,000 rupees (10,500 - 2,100 dollars) to the families of those injured and dead.

   Preliminary investigations showed that a leak in a pipeline might have caused the conflagration.

   'Firefighters and experts will go in later and assess the situation. There may be people inside so we will have to do some rescue and relief operations and salvage whatever we can,' IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria said.

   'We have instituted an inquiry to find out the cause behind the fire,' he added.