The visual was so unusual and spectacular that people came out of homes.
Panic struck Burnpur in West Bengal's Asansol on Friday evening when huge flames leapt out of chimneys of a blast furnace at the public sector IISCO steel plant around 8:45pm.
A 'bleeder valve' located in a blast furnace with a 105 foot tall chimney apparently released too much gas all of a sudden when the pressure built up.
While officials described it as "not unusual" locals ran out homes at the sound of what sounded like a blast and saw giant flames coming out.
Officials said there were no injuries to anyone. Nor any damage to machinery.
However, the visual was so unusual and spectacular that people came out of homes and watched the flames, were not sure of what was going on. Traffic came to a halt for some time.
But finally the flames died down. Many locals said they couldn't remember seeing anything like this before.
The officials however said there was no need for any panic at any point of time.