Fire breaks out at crude distillery unit in Vizag

There were no casualties, says HPCL

A fire broke out at the crude distillery unit number 3 of the HPCL Visakh Refinery at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. According to Commissioner of Police Manish Kumar Sinha, no casualties or injuries were reported as all were evacuated in time. The fire was doused within an hour, he said. As per the initial assessment by the disaster management department of the HPCL, the fire broke out around 3.10 p.m. when an overhead electrical line caught fire, probably due to overheating, and this might have led to the fire in the distillery unit below, which contained naphtha. Four fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the flames were doused within an hour.