Two firefighters die in Baghjan gas well blowout blaze in Assam
PSU major Oil India on Wednesday (June 10) said two of its firefighters died at the site of a major blaze at its Baghjan well, which has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 15 days in Assam’s Tinsukia district.
A massive fire on Tuesday engulfed the damaged Baghjan oil well that had been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last two weeks. The blaze at the Oil India Ltd’s well is so massive that it can be seen from a distance of more than 30 kilometres with thick black smoke going up several metres high.
The two firefighters had gone missing after the well caught fire and their bodies were recovered by an NDRF team this morning, Oil India Spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika
told PTI.
“Their bodies were recovered from a wetland near the site. Prima facie it looks that they jumped into the water and got drowned as there is no mark of burn injury. The exact cause will be ascertained only after a post mortem,” he said.
The duo has been identified as Durlov Gogoi and Tikeswar Gohain, both assistant operators of the fire service department of the company, the official said.
Related news: Massive fire breaks out at Assam’s gas-spewing Baghjan oil well
A firefighter of the state-owned ONGC suffered minor injuries during efforts to control the blaze, which Oil India said could take as long as four weeks to be put out.
Following the news, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and urged them to take urgent steps to douse the fire that broke out when clearing operations were on at the site.
Sonowal was assured of all kinds of central assistance and told even the Air Force was on standby to deal with the emerging situation.
A massive explosion happened in the afternoon at the oil well, next to the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, and soon black smoke engulfed the area, eyewitnesses said.
There were protests in the area as the fire broke out, threatening the lives and livelihood of the people already facing the impact of the blowout for the last two weeks amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Following the gas leak, thousands of people were moved out of the area and provided shelter at different camps where following coronavirus guidelines, such as maintaining social distancing, remain difficult.
Related news: Assam: Delay in plugging oil well blowout threatens lives, ecology
In a statement, Oil India said in view of the protests by people around the site, the chief Secretary and Tinsukia district administration was requested for maintaining law and order so that experts were allowed to enter the site and start the well control operations.
The staff of Oil India and ONGC were shifted from the nearby areas and once the situation is normal, experts from Singaporean firm Alert Disaster Control and the state-owned companies will move to the site, it said.
The three experts from the Singaporean firm who started working at the site on Monday to stop the gas leak are confident that the situation can be controlled and the well can be capped safely, the statement said.
The situation demands the arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high discharge pumps and removal of debris, it added.
All the operations as per the Alert Disaster Control team will take about four weeks and efforts will be made to reduce this timeframe as much as possible, it said.
The chief minister said all necessary steps have been taken by the state government to ensure the safety of the local people in Baghjan and instructions have been sent to district and police administrations about the same.
The fire has now been confined to an area of 50 mtrs. Experts believe that they need around 25-28 days to control the situation. We have successfully evacuated people from that area. PM Modi has assured full assistance to the state: Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal pic.twitter.com/BuPubcCpUv
— ANI (@ANI) June 10, 2020
He said the chief secretary and the Director-General of Police have been directed to take active steps to control the situation while keeping the armed and paramilitary forces, fire brigades, NDRF and SDRF engaged to ensure the safety of the people.
He also called on the people in the affected area not to panic as both the central and the state governments have been taking all measures to ensure their safety.
Environmental Impact Assessment is in progress and a team from the Assam Agricultural University in Jorhat has reached Duliajan, the Oil India said.
Related news: Assam oil well blowout: Foreign experts reach site; probe ordered over 5 deaths
Earlier, pictures of carcasses of a river dolphin and some dead fishes in Maguri Motapung Beel, which is adjacent to Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and about 1.5 km from the incident site, went viral on social media following the gas leak.
Due to seepage of crude, condensate and other chemicals from the oil well there has been large-scale damage to the ecology of the area, according to environmentalists and various groups.
Regarding the status of activities for well control, Oil India said testing of equipment is in progress and transfer to the site is underway.
(With inputs from agencies.)
