Butcher Island fire: BPCL had no firefighting capability says report

Firefighting operations went on for five days on the island

Serious lapses in procedure and protocol have come to light in the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) report on the fire that broke out in Tank No. 13 (Tank A) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) on Butcher Island on October 6, 2017. OISDâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088is the petroleum ministry's regulatory and technical watchdog. The four-page report has, among other things, pointed to poor maintenance and almost no adherence to prescribed safety measures.

The report, prepared by a three-member OISD committee comprising V J Rao, executive director; M Gupta, additional director (refinery) and Pramod Kumar, joint director, found several lapses. Senior officers claim that had their concerns been taken seriously, such a situation would have been averted. They are keen to know what action will be taken on the basis of these findings.

The BPCL tank fire at Butcher Island in October last year

Sources within the refinery, who got a preview of the OISD report, told mid-day that though OISD has tried to downplay the episode, it did touch upon a few areas of concern such as: a) initial fire fighting was carried out by an outsourced operating group that had limited experience of the oil and gas industry, b) the fire water header pressure was about 3.5 -4.5 kg/cm2g resulting in ineffective fire fighting initially, which was subsequently increased to 6-6.5 kg/cm2g, c) no Disaster Control Room set up at the site of the incident, d) the sprinkler system of adjacent tanks was working but had flange leakages and some of the spray nozzles were choked, e) CCTVs video of the fire could not be retrieved as the connected hard disk was faulty, f) The intensity of fire was reduced on the third night around 22 hours. However on the fourth day, the intensity of the flames increased and the fire was finally put out at 00.15 hours on the fifth day.