A fire broke out on the premises of a naphtha cracker unit at the Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) refinery in West Bengal on Tuesday. The plant was under a “technical shutdown” from August 1 and was undergoing maintenance work.
“There has been no injury to any personnel and no damage to any asset of the company,” HPL said in a press statement.
The fire is believed to have broken out in an open space nearby the naphtha tank, possibly caused by some spillage of effluent that spread into an internal drain. However, it was brought under control “promptly”.
The maintenance work at the plant was necessitated due to a snag in the Gasoline Fractionator (GF) tower that had adversely impacted its ‘throughput’.
“The root cause of the fire is being investigated by the plant authorities and fire safety measures have been further enhanced, keeping in view the requirement of the shutdown maintenance of the plant,” the company said.
Nearly 15 people were injured when a fire had broken out at the same naphtha cracker unit last year.