Dibrugarh, November 7: A major industrial fire at Oil India Limited’s (OIL) Tengakhat facility in Assam’s Dibrugarh district has claimed three lives, with two more injured workers succumbing to their injuries on Saturday, a day after the incident.
The latest victim, Rupam Gogoi of Chabua, died at a private hospital in Guwahati around 11 am on November 7. Earlier, Tapas Gogoi, 40, a resident of Milan Nagar in Dibrugarh, passed away at approximately 3 am. Raju Dutta was the first casualty of the incident.
The fire broke out around 9:05 am on Friday, November 6, during maintenance activities at an indirect bath heater at OIL’s Intermediate Tank Farm (ITF) in Tengakhat. The incident left several contract workers with serious burn injuries.
According to OIL’s initial statement, seven workers employed by its operations and maintenance contractor sustained burn injuries. The injured were taken to Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh and OIL Hospital in Duliajan for treatment.
Emergency personnel launched firefighting operations immediately after the incident. OIL deployed 11 fire tenders, and the blaze was extinguished by approximately 12:30 pm on Friday.
Oil India Limited has constituted an internal inquiry committee to determine the cause of the incident, assess the damage and recommend measures to prevent similar accidents.
The exact cause of the fire has not yet been officially established. Further updates regarding the investigation and the medical condition of the surviving injured workers are awaited.
