IOC fire contained, depot destroyed
Lucknow   19-Jan-2011

A fire broke out at a lubricant-filling depot of state-run IndianOil (IOC) on the outskirts of Mumbai in the wee hours of Tuesday but was contained within hours.

“No one was injured in the fire,” IOC Chairman BM Bansal told a new conference in New Delhi. The depot in Taloja outside Mumbai stored lube oil for packaging into containers but had no stocks of crude oil. Bansal said the fire was reported at around 1.30 am and was completely put out by 0730 hours.

“The 1,800 kilolitre per month plant blends and fills lubricants in small cans and drums, besides filling speciality lubes.

It operates on single shift (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and the plant was shut when the fire broke out,” Bansal said adding the fire gutted a shed storing packed lubricants.

“All the other facilities of the plant including storage tank farms, manufacturing plant, laboratory and fire-fighting facilities are intact,” he said.