60 injured in major fire at Indian Oil depot in Jaipur At least 60 people were injured when a major fire brokeout at an Indian Oil depot in Sitapura industrial area near here Thursday evening. Many of the injuries were reported from nearby areas and caused due to the shattering of glass panes, officials said. Though the cause of the fire was not known, according to eyewitnesses the fire broke out after gas leakage from one of the tanks. "The incident occurred at around 7.15 pm and we immediately pressed ambulances and fire tenders into service," a district administration official told IANS. "As a precautionary measure we have vacated the nearby villages," he said. The injured have been admitted to the government-run SMS Hospital and the nearby Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, he said. The fire was of great intensity and the flames could be seen from a distance of over 15 km. People living in nearby areas heard loud explosions when the fire broke out. "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," Ramkumar, a worker in a small factory, said. Amit Agarwal, a student of a private engineering college around 2 km away from the site, said the glass panes of his building were shattered due to the explosions. Meanwhile, the administration is holding talks with the army to seek help in controlling the blaze as there is danger of it spreading to other areas. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is slated to visit the spot early Saturday morning. He is in touch with the Rajasthan chief minister, a ministry official said. A team of Indian Oil Corp officials has already reached the site. 60 injured in major fire at Indian Oil depot in Jaipur - Oil & Gas-Energy-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times IOC officials sent in 15-day judicial custody Jaipur, Jul 3 : Nine Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials, including then General Manager Gautam Bose, who were arrested in connection with the October 29, 2009 devastating fire at the oil giant's Sitapura depot here, were today sent in 15-day judicial custody. The accused were produced before Judicial Magistrate (Sanganer) D R Meena who sent them in the 15-day judicial custody. Police had arrested them yesterday in a case of culpable homicide and criminal negligence of duty which had left 11 people dead and the depot premises and many industrial units in the adjoining Sitapura Industrial area badly damaged, a police spokesman said. Besides Bose, then Chief Operation Manager Rajesh K Chail, Senior Manager Shashank Shekhar, Terminal Manager K S Kanojiya, Deputy Terminal Manager Kapil Kumar Goyal, operation in charge Ashok Gupta, pipeline in charge SS Gupta, valve in charge K N Agrawal and Senior Manager Ojha were also arrested. The Jaipur oil depot fire broke out on October 29, 2009 at 7:30 PM (IST) at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) oil depot's giant tank holding 8,000 kilolitres of oil, in Sitapura Industrial Area on the outskirts of Jaipur, Rajasthan, killing 12 people and injuring over 200. The blaze continued to rage out of control for over a week after it started and during the period half a million people were evacuated from the area.[1][2][3][4] The oil depot is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) south of the city of Jaipur[5][6] The incident occurred when petrol was being transferred from the Indian Oil Corporation's oil depot to a pipeline. There were at least 40 IOC employees at the terminal, situated close to the Sanganer Airport (Jaipur Airport) when it caught fire with an explosion. The Met department recorded a tremor measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale around the time the first explosion at 7.36 pm which resulted in shattering of glass window nearly 3 km from the accident site.[7][8][9] Contents [hide] • • • • • • • o • o o o o • o • o o o • • • 1 The fire 2 Inventory 3 Aftermath 4 Disaster Management Plan 5 Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board report 6 Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report 7 Investigations 7.1 Central Bureau of Investigation Case 8 First Information Report 8.1 Civil Administration 8.2 Indian Oil Corporation Limited 8.3 Sanganer Sadar Police Station 8.4 Sanganer Court 9 Compensation 9.1 Sitapura Industries Association 10 Other similar incidents in Jaipur 10.1 The Jaipur oil depot fire of October 31st 2009 10.2 The Jaipur oil depot fire of November 29th, 2009 10.3 Government report 11 See also 12 References 13 External links [edit]The fire The fire was a major disaster in terms of deaths, injury, loss of business, property & man-days, displacement of people, environmental impact in Jaipur, the capital city of the Indian state of Rajasthan and a popular tourist destination. As per eyewitnesses having factories and hotels around Indian Oil’s Sitapura (Jaipur) Oil Terminal they felt presence of petrol vapour in the atmosphere around 4:00 p.m. on 29 October 2009. Within next few hours the concentration of petrol vapour had intensified making it difficult to breathe[3]/[4]. The Ayush Hotel in the vicinity of the terminal had asked all its guests to vacate the Hotel to avert any tragedy. The police, civil administration and fire emergency services were oblivious of the situation developing in Indian Oil Terminal. Around half past six the staff in the terminal having failed to contain the leak and flow of petrol panicked and reported the matter to nearbySanganer Sadar Police Station. Within next half an hour the local police chief and District Collector were on the spot along with Indian Oil General Manager, but with no plan to deal with the situation. The nearby industries, which were running second shifts, were cautioned to vacate the area. At 7:35 p.m. a huge ball of fire with loud explosion broke out engulfing the leaking petrol tank and other nearby petrol tanks with continuous fire with flames rising 30–35 meters and visible from 30 km radius. The traffic on adjacent National Highway No. 12 was stopped leading to 20 kilometres long traffic jam. The Jaipur (Sanganer) Airport is just 5 Kms away from the accident site. Both the Army and experts from Mumbai[10] were employed on the 30th to contain the fire, which started when an oil tanker caught fire at the depot in the Sitapura Industrial Area. The district administration disconnected electricity and evacuated nearby areas to limit the damage.[11]. The fire still raged on on the 31st, in the Indian Oil Corporation Depot, at Jaipur, after a defective pipe line leak that set fire to 50,000 Kilolitresof diesel and petrol out of the storage tanks at the IOC Depot[12]. By then, the accident had already claimed 11 lives and seriously injured more than 150[13]. Army and Fire Brigades continued to work relentlessly to douse the fires. The 70 feet tall flames spread in the area of 2-3Kilometers spreading the destruction with it[14]. The District Administration and Indian Oil Corporation had no disaster management plan to deal with this kind of calamity. The local fire officers were ill equipped to deal with fire accidents of this magnitude. They remained onlookers and no efforts were made to breach the terminal wall to get closer to kerosene and diesel tanks to cool them with water jets. [edit]Inventory The following products were stored in eleven tanks inside the terminal: Petrol (18,810 Kl) Kerosene (2,099 Kl) High Speed Diesel (39,966 Kl) Interface (2809 Kl) [edit]Aftermath About 11 people lost their lives due to burns and asphyxia and more than 300 suffered injuries. Many of the dead were the employees of Indian Oil Corporation. [edit]Disaster Management Plan THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT ACT, 2005 envisages that each revenue District must have a Disaster Management Plan. While 31 revenue Districts of Rajasthan had placed the Disaster Management Plan on Rajasthan Government website Jaipur District did not have any Disaster Management Plan. A Disaster Management Plan for Jaipur District has been put on Internet on 17 November 2009 i.e. 20 days after the accident took place on 29 October 2009. In the meanwhileJaipur suffered two more disasters when Swine Flu infected a number of school children prompting Government to order closure of schools, and derailment of a Train Mandore Express killing six persons and injuring more than 50 persons. [edit]Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board report A Legal Notice has been issued to Indian Oil Corporation for violating THE WATER (PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF POLLUTION) ACT 1974, THE AIR (PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF POLLUTION) ACT, 1981, and THE ENVIRONMENT (PROTECTION) ACT, 1986. [edit]Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report Air pollution across Jaipur was way above maximum permitted limits when the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot on the edge of the city was caught fire. It significant effect on the air in in Delhi or Agra, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) reported. Almost 60,000 kilolitres of oil in 11 storage tanks went up in flames on the evening of Oct 29 and the blaze raged till Nov 6 [15]. [edit]Investigations The Petroleum Minister of India Murli Deora has appointed a 5-member committee to investigate the causes of Fire and submit its report within 60 days. The Industries & Education Institutions in Sitapura Industrial Area have filed about 150 complaints with Sanganer Sadar police station about deaths, injury and loss of property due to negligence of Indian Oil Corporation Limited. [edit]Central Bureau of Investigation Case Variation in stock of liquid petroleum products due to temperature variation, evaporation, handling (and also due to pilferage) result into what is known as stock loss. Percentage stock loss for every product for every depot is fixed based on historical operating data. Monitoring of stock loss is done on shift basis daily. Abnormal variation in stock loss beyond permitted limit invites explanation and even disciplinary actions for the officers at the Depots and Terminals. The Competent Authorities for such chargesheeting for Depot level Officers for such lapses are Executive Director (Supplies) and Director (Marketing) who prefer to selectively issue chargesheets to defaulting officers to protect their favorites. [edit]First Information Report The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jaipur City, Jaipur Mr. Mahaveer Swami has ordered registering of a number of First Information Report (FIR) against Indian Oil Corporation Limited officers and Civil Administration for non-performance of statutory duty and negligence. [edit]Civil Administration The Director General of Police, Rajasthan to investigate against Mr. B. L. Soni, Inspector General of Police Jaipur Range I, Mr. Kuldeep Ranka, District Collector, Jaipur and Mr. Biju George Joseph, Superintendent of Police Jaipur (East) for commission of offences u/ss 120B, 166, 167, 201, 202, 203, 204, 217, 218, 221 IPC. The order was passed on 10 December 2009, a month after the fire got extinguished. [edit]Indian Oil Corporation Limited As per the orders passed on 4 December 2009 by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jaipur Mr. Mahaveer Swami, the Police Station Adarsh Nagar, Jaipur has registered FIR 337/09 under sections 166, 304A, 511, 120B against 20 accused; 1. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC), Through Company Secretary Mr. Raju Rangnathan, 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Sarthak Behuria, Chairman IOC B M Bansal, Director (Planning & Business Development) IOC S V Narasimhan, Director (Finance) IOC V C Agrawal, Director (Human Resources) IOC G C Daga, Director (Marketing) IOC B N Bankapur, Director (Refineries) IOC Anand Kumar, Director (Research & Development) IOC K. K. Jha, Director (Pipelines) IOC 10. S Sundareshan, Additional Secretary, Ministry Of Petroleum & Natural Gas, & Director IOC 11. P K Sinha, Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry Of Petroleum & Natural Gas, & Director IOC 12. Prof.(Mrs.) Indira J. Parikh, Former Prof. IIM, Ahmedabad and President, FLAME, Pune, & Director IOC 13. IOC 14. Michael Bastian, Former Chairman & Managing Director, Syndicate Bank, & Anees Noorani, Managing Director, Zodiac Clothing Company Ltd., & Director Director IOC 15. Dr.(Mrs.) Indu Shahani, Principal, HR College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai and Sheriff of Mumbai, & Director IOC 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Prof. Gautam Barua, Director, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, & Director IOC N.K. Poddar, Senior Advocate, Kolkata, & Director IOC K. S. Kanoujiya Senior Terminal Manager IOC Gautam Bose, General Manager IOC, and other unknown accused. Section 120B: Punishment of criminal conspiracy (1) Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, 2[imprisonment for life] or rigorous imprisonment for a term of two years or upwards shall, where no express provision is made in this Code fro the punishment of such a conspiracy, be punished in the same abetted such offence. (2) Whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy other than a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable as aforesaid shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months, or with fine or with both.] Section 166: Public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person Whoever, being a public servant, knowingly disobeys any direction of the law as to the way in which he is to conduct himself as such public servant, intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will, by such disobedience, cause injury to any person, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both. Illustration A, being an officer directed by law to take property in execution, in order to satisfy a decree pronounced in Z's favour by a Court of Justice, knowingly disobeys that direction of law, with the knowledge that he is likely thereby to cause injury to Z. A has committed the offence defined in this section. Section 304A: Causing death by negligence Whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.] Section 511: Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment Whoever attempts to commit an offence punishable by this Code with 1[imprisonment for life] or imprisonment, or to cause such an offence to be committed, and in such attempts does any act towards the commission of the offence, shall, where no express provision is made by this Code for the punishment of such attempt, be punished with 2[imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to onehalf of the imprisonment for life or, as the case may be, one-half of the longest term of imprisonment provided for that offence], or with such fine as is provided for the offence, or with both. [edit]Sanganer Sadar Police Station In addition to the above two more FIR 241/09 dated 2 November 2009 by Mr. Prit Pal Singh of Genus Overseas an Industrial unit in Sitapura and FIR 242/09 dated 3 November 2009 by Mr. B. L. Meharada of BLM Institute have been registered against Indian Oil by Police Station Sanganer Sadar. [edit]Sanganer Court A city court in Sanganer has ordered registering of FIR on the complaint of Ayush Hotel Sitapura. [edit]Compensation The State Government promptly announced a cash compensation of Rs. 2, 00,000.00 to the dead and in addition Indian Oil Corporation paid Rs. 10, 00, 000.00 to the next of the kin of dead and varied amount of compensation between Rs.1, 00,000.00 and 2, 00,000.00 to the injured. It has been decided to review the location of all Oil Terminals throughout India and shift these terminals beyond city limits within a period of next 12–18 months. [edit]Sitapura Industries Association The SITAPURA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION has 1383 units, comprising of 325 garment, 115 jewelers, 110 handicraft, and other units like chemical, cable, manufacturing, IT, BPO, Auto parts, Educational Institutes and Hospitals having an investment of over 75,000 crore. The SITAPURA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION have played an important part in shaping the economy of the State of Rajasthan and generation of employment (approximately 1,00,000 direct/indirect workers). The SITAPURA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION has played an important role in exports and generation of foreign exchange. That on 29 October 2009 at about 4:00 p.m. some leakage of Petrol started in IOC Terminal and by 6:00 p.m. the fumes had spread far and wide in and around the Indian Oil Corporation terminal. That a huge explosion and fire erupted at 7:35 p.m. and the noise and shock waves were so intense that it gave an impression of an earthquake to the Industries of the area. The neighboring industries adjacent to the Indian Oil Corporation terminal suffered major structural damages, loss of inventory, equipment, and finished goods. As a consequence of the Fire and associated hazards the District Collector, Jaipur declared a 5 km. zone as dangerous area and prohibited entry of the persons and vehicles in the area. The SITAPURA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION claims to have lost Rs.400.00 crore worth of property, equipment and inventory instantaneously on 29 October 2009. Thereafter the loss of production, dispatch and consequent loss of goodwill is valued at Rs. 200.00 Crore per day. The industries were allowed free access to their units since 5 November 2009. The total estimated loss is valued at 1800.00 crore. As an EPZ is part of the SITAPURA INDUSTRIAL AREA it houses a number of export-oriented units. The peak season for the export oriented units was at handshake. Due to fire and subsequent pollution and dispersion of carbon soot particles in atmosphere almost 100% finished garments would fail in stringent quality test and would have to be dumped in the domestic market at throwaway prices. As the industries are most likely to falter on their export commitment, the loss of Goodwill will takes years to rebuild. As the Christmas and New Year is approaching it is a major setback to exporting industry that is carrying a huge liability of working capital. Murli Deora gave an adhoc relief of Rs. 50 Crore for SITAPURA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION.