Jaipur:
A fire at a factory right next to the blazing Indian Oil Corporation depot sets alarm bells ringing. The army and fire brigade get into action. But the relief is obvious, as the fire is contained quickly.
The minor scare is a reminder of how rapidly an oil fire can get out of control, as happened on Thursday evening. The IOC has consistently claimed that it was a minor spillage that caused the fire. But an unconvinced Rajasthan Police will have its own investigation to fix responsibility.
"Our focus will be to identify what caused this big fire and explosion. Was it some human error, malfunctioning machinery like a faulty valve or due to some wrong operating procedure," said Biju George Josef, SP, Jaipur.
IOC officials remain mum, but sources say a wrong valve of the pipeline was opened while transferring oil and that triggered the fire.
When Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot visited the mishap site, IOC officials had to admit that over two hours after the initial leakage, even basic safety precautions like diverting traffic had not been taken. Just five minutes before the blast, a train went past the depot.
"We had a train going from here just five minutes before the explosion. We were really lucky," said Gautam Bose, IOC in-charge, Jaipur.
Flames from the containers are flattening but given the intense heat, the danger is that the fire could spread horizontally. And that makes the final dousing of the fire a tricky exercise.
With the flames finally coming down, there's hope that the fire tragedy may soon come to an end. But the fundamental question of whether it was a technical failure or human negligence that caused this crisis is bound to simmer for a long, long time.