1 killed, 35 injured in a fire at HPCL Refinery in Vizag

Hyderabad, Aug 23: A major fire broke out at the state-owned HPCL refinery-cum-petrochemical complex on Friday evening killing one person and injuring around 35 people, police said.

The fire broke out at 4 pm and has been brought under control, Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner B Shivadhar Reddy said. "The cause of the fire is not yet known. The fire was brought under control," Reddy told PTI.

The initial reports from the site suggested that the fire accident occurred due to blasting of cooling tower due to short circuit. But later on, sources said that the fire was away from the cooling tower.

A thick layer of smoke engulfed the area causing tension and panic among nearby residents.

Fire fighting tenders from all over the city were pressed into service to control the fire, police said adding the injured were shifted to INS Kalyani and other nearby hospitals.

A fire had reportedly broken out in the same plant earlier this year, but had been put out before any major disaster.

The Visakhapatnam plant is one of the two Hindustan Petroleum refineries in India, the other being in Mumbai.

(With agency inputs)

OneIndia News