Mangalore/New Delhi, Oct 18: One person was killed and four others were injured today when paint vapours caused a fire at an oil storage tank, which was being painted, at the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).
The fire occurred at an under-construction oil storage tank in Mangalore, being built to expand MRPL's capacity to 15 million tonnes a year from the current 11.8 million tonnes.
The injured have been admitted to a local hospital. The paint job was being carried out by a contractor, Offshore Infrastructure Ltd, and the workers on the paint job were employed by it.
“Paint vapours seem to have ignited the fire,” MRPL Managing Director U K Basu told PTI from Mangalore.
“The paint job was being carried out by a contractor at the construction site outside the refinery area. The refinery is unaffected,” he added.
Basu said the contractor has been asked to submit a detailed report on the accident.
A group of workers was applying paint to a huge over-ground crude oil tank as part of the third phase expansion of MRPL. Offshore Infrastructure Ltd is building three tanks for MRPL at the site. A spark from nearby ‘cutting work' led to the accident.
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