JORHAT, May 31 � A major fire damaged some portions of two units at the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) this morning. The fire could not be doused for more than an hour after it engulfed the area.
The two units � Crude Distillation Unit(CDU) and Vacuum Distillation Unit(VDU) � belong to the mother plant of the refinery. �As safety measures for the plants, operation has been shut down in several units after the fire took place. It was a major incident,�said Corporate Communication Manager of NRL ,Madhuchanda Adhikari.
Adhikari said that neither any injury nor any casualty could take place as the people at the operation units took safety measures on the spot.
The fire was controlled before the flames could spread from the CDU and VDU to other operation units.
Along with all the fire tenders of the NRL, fire fighters of three other fire tenders from the Golaghat district administration were deployed to control the fire that created panic in the refinery campus for at least for an hour.
Though the fire could not spread to other operation units, senior officials of the NRL suspect that serious damage could occur to the crude booster pump of the refinery which is one of the most integral parts of the entire refining operation.
The NRL authority said that the actual cause behind the incident is yet to be detected. �According to them, it was suspected to be a consequence of technical failure,�said Golaghat Superintendant of Police RA Laskar.
�The actual cause is yet to be ascertained. A high-level committee will probe it. The committee will examine the loss and actual damage too,� said NRL Corporate Communication Manager Adhikari.