A senior ONGC officer, meanwhile, said yesterday's mishap could have been triggered by friction between the wagon and some other metal when the loading arm was being dismantled. Some quantity of LPG was always left in the loading pipe and its leakage was common, he added.

Maintaining that this theory was only a possibility, he -- like all other senior officers -- discounted the possibility of the fire having been sparked by a matchstick. Claiming that there was no safety lapse, group general manager S Prasad said the cause of the fire could be ascertained only after the expert committee headed by general manager (safety) P K Agarwal submitted his report. He added, ``No one is allowed to take anything that can ignite a fire to the vicinity of the loading gantry. The panel will investigate if any of the workers present were carrying anything like that''.

Some eight workers had just finished their lunch when the incident occurred. While Ramavtar and Gokul were close to the wagon where the fire started, the others were some distance away.

The loading-unloading gantry of the ONGC Hazira plant is about 100 metres in length and is fitted with sprinklers alongside on either side. The company also has hydrocarbon detectors fitted in the area to detect inflammable substances. ``The detectors immediately spot the presence of hydrocarbon as it can cause a fire if it comes in contact with LPG'', Prasad said.

Incidentally, this is the second mishap in the unit in recent times. A short-circuit fire in a cable joint had forced the authorities to cut off gas supply to the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur line, which caters to many industrial units, for a few hours some weeks ago.