Indian Oil GM,8 others held for Jaipur depot fire that killed 11

“We began an investigation soon after the fire,which concluded with the arrest of nine IOC officials. The investigation team,working with petroleum experts,recreated the scene before the fire broke out,” B L Soni,I-G,Jaipur range,said.

The arrested officials were responsible for gross violations of procedures laid down by the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) and IOC’s safety manual,Soni added.

The arrested officials,besides Gautam Ghosh,are,operations manager Rajesh Syal,senior manager (operations) Shashank Shekhar,senior terminal manager K S Kanodia,terminal manager Arun Pottdar,deputy manager Kapil Goyal,operating officer A K Gupta,deputy general manager in the pipelines division S S Gupta,and charge man K N Agarwal.

The fire that followed a pipeline leak and an explosion,began on October 29 and soon spread uncontrollably to 11 containers in the depot. Eleven people,including six IOC employees,were killed in the blaze that eventually took 12 days to burn itself out. Over 100 people were injured.

Additional superintendent of police Yogesh Goyal,the investigating officer,said serious violations of procedure preceded the fire,which began as workers prepared to transfer kerosene and petrol through the pipeline.

“We recreated the scene at the nearby HPCL depot using water to understand the operations procedure and found that the IOC staff on that day had not operated the storage tank valves according to protocol,” Goyal said. “The men who were operating the valves that night were not qualified to operate such machinery.” The operators were among those who perished in the fire.

At the time the leak in the pipeline was detected,A K Gupta,the officer who was in charge of the terminal’s pipeline operations,was busy on his mobile phone,Goyal said. The “Regulations state that at least four personnel have to be present while initiating a pipeline transfer,which was ignored. Also,we found that most of the staff operating the terminal that night had never been trained for a fire emergency,” Goyal said.

He added that adequate fire-fighting equipment and vital oxygen masks had not been stored in the depot,and the only emergency gate had been walled up.

A computerised system located in the terminal’s control room,capable of sealing off all storage tanks and controlling the fire remotely at the flick of a switch,had been dysfunctional for months before the accident,Goyal said. “Despite having a computerised system,all operations were being carried out manually. IOC officials never bothered to get this system repaired,” Goyal said.