A fire mishap occurred at Essar steel plant’s iron grinding plant here today. No one was injured in the blaze. Sources said that the fire broke out around 12. 45 PM at the iron grinding plant of this Essar steel plant where pellets which are critical raw material and fines are used in all iron making processes.
Four fire tenders of IFFCO, PPL, IOCL and Kujang fire station were pressed into service to douse the fire. Unconfirmed reports, however, indicated that more than 25 labourers who were at work, were rescued. Several labourers ran for safety.
Kujang Fire Officer Mr Biswajit Mohanty informed ‘ labourers were wielding the hot metal near the grinding plant site when a piece of hot metal fall on rubber lining of the conveyor and caught fire. A senior Essar official said that “we summoned fire brigade of nearly all industrial units after a fire broke out at our plant site.
The fire was doused before it could go out of control. There has been no major damage to the site. The damage to property has not yet been estimated.
The production in the plant has been shut down and all efforts are being taken to restore production. A team is examining the loss of damage and the exact cause of fire mishap’. It may be recalled that the plant site has had four fire accidents since 2011.
The first in 2011 led to damage to property worth one crore while in 2012, two persons including a fire brigade personnel sustained burn injuries in the fire at the electric substation in the plant premises.
Again in 2014, another major fire mishap took place in the construction site in Essar plant site and the next year there was a similar mishap at the blast furnace of the plant.