Hazira fire: Report blames lapses by senior officials
“Primary responsibility lies with the concerned officers at IOC Hazira. Apart from this, the committee feels that deficiencies that have crept into the system should have been corrected by personnel from among IOC’s higher officials at the Gujarat state office as well as the Marketing Headquarters (in Mumbai),” says the report, submitted to the Petroleum Ministry last week.
The “root cause” of the incident, according to the report, was the use of old, corroded plates to repair the floating roof of tank No. 4.
On December 31, 2012, within three months of re-commissioning of the tank, a leak in the roof pontoon was detected. This turned into petrol vapours that got ignited, leading to the explosion on January 5.
“Seepage in pontoons emanated hydrocarbon vapours, which mixed with air and created hydrocarbon mixture in the pontoons. This mixture getting some source of ignition from acts of workers attempting to repair the seepage caused the explosion and fire,” the probe team headed by Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) chief Hirak Dutta has concluded.
It has also ruled out the use of mobile phone by a worker as having caused the fire. The only call received by one of the workers ended at 12:36:21 hours while the vibration of the
