Fire in Panipat IOC refinery kills one

CHANDIGARH: One worker was killed and two others sustained serious burn injuries following a major fire at the Indian Oil Corp's Panipat refinery in Haryana , police said on Sunday.

The fire started on Saturday night. Fire tenders were rushed to control the flames in the refinery belonging to the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).

The 22-year-old victim, Mohan Lal, who hailed from Sonipat district and was engaged by a contractor of the refinery, was trapped in the vacuum distillation unit.

The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, officials said.

Sources said the incident took place when unit was being tested on Saturday night after an earlier shutdown.

Gas began to leaked during the testing, leading to a fire. Mohan Lal and another worker, Deepak, received serious burn injuries as they were trapped in the unit. Their supervisor, M S Kherkar, was also injured in the incident.

An internal probe has been ordered to ascertain the cause of fire.

This is not the first incident at the refinery in the recent past. Two people died on January 22, 2018, following a fire at the catalyst storage site of the refinery.

The Panipat refinery is IOCL's technically most advanced public sector unit. It is spread in an area of around 4,222 acres and consists of a refinery and petrochemical complex.

It caters to the demand of petroleum products in Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, and parts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.