Fire at Vadodara IOCL refinery: Death toll rises to 2
Vadodara (PTI): The death toll in a fire at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) refinery in Gujarat's Vadodara city has gone up to two, while another injured person was undergoing treatment, police said on Tuesday.
The fire that began on Monday afternoon with a blast in a benzene storage tank of the refinery later spread to two other adjoining tanks, Jawahar Nagar police station inspector A B Mori said.
The blaze was brought under control after efforts which continued till the wee hours of Tuesday, he said.
Two persons -- Dhimant Makwana and Shailesh Makwana -- died in the fire. An IOCL official received injuries and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital, Mori said.
The condition of the injured person was stable, he said.
The blaze was brought under control after extensive efforts involving several fire tenders brought in from nearby cities and towns, officials said.
The blast occurred at the IOCL refinery located in Koyali area on the outskirts of Vadodara which triggered the blaze, an official earlier said.
The IOCL in a statement on Monday evening said the "fire was reported at around 3.30 pm in a benzene storage tank (1000 KL capacity) at Gujarat Refinery".
The adjacent water sprinkler system was activated to contain the fire, it said.
"The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained," it added.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) D J Chavda told reporters late Monday night that the fire had spread to the adjoining storage tanks.
Visuals showed thick plumes emerging from the refinery which could be seen from kilometres away. Several workers were evacuated and could be seen exiting the IOCL campus.
Following the fire, fluid circulation in the IOCL complex was stopped as per the standard operating procedure. Other storage tanks were being cooled to ensure the blaze didn't spread, Vadodara Police Commissioner Narasimha Komar said.
All the employees who were working in the shift were moved out of the refinery and the people reaching the refinery for subsequent shifts were turned back for safety reasons, he said.
The police, district administration officials and senior executives of IOCL reached the site after the incident.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
