Visakhapatnam: Two days after a fire broke out at the Vizag Hindustan Petroleum Corp refinery, employees have gone on a strike demanding better safety measures and compensation. One person was killed and 30 others were injured after a fire had engulfed an under-construction building in the Vizag plant.
HPCL has shut part of its 166,000 barrel per day (bpd) Vizag refinery after a massive fire had broken out in the cooling tower. A company source on Friday said the firm closed a fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) and a gasoline unit at the refinery, which sends most of its petroleum products to domestic markets.
"We have shut some of the secondary processing units as a precautionary measure because there will be a shortage of cooling water," said the source.
"There was a fire in the cooling tower. It has been contained and has not spread to other areas," HPCL Chairman S. Roy Choudhury said, adding the extent of the damage and impact on production was not immediately known.
One person was killed and 33 injured in the fire, said police inspector Ranganadh from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Friday's blaze is the second major fire at the plant in three months. The 60,000 bpd crude unit at Vizag was halted on May 16 after a fire on a pipeline attached to the unit.
Apart from its Vizag refinery in southern India, HPCL also operates a 130,000 bpd plant in western Maharashtra state. It also has a stake in the 180,000 bpd Bathinda refinery in northern India, which is operated by Hindustan-Mittal Energy Ltd, part-owned by LN Mittal.
(With additional inputs from Reuters)
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