26 hours: Vizag blaze is still on

Visakhapatnam: A major fire that broke out at Biomax Fuels Limited, a bio-diesel manufacturing firm in the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ), Duvvada area in the city on Tuesday night, is still raging even as arduous efforts were on to bring it under control.

The fire service personnel informed that the mishap at BFL has not caused any caused any injuries or loss of life. But it has led to massive financial losses. The fight to bring the blaze under control is unprecedented in Visakhapatnam — with over 40 fire engines and over 200 personnel employed.

The fire service personnel are hoping that the situation will be under control by Thursday. So far 10 storage tankers were gutted while two more had caught fire by Wednesday evening.

District Fire Officer J. Mohan Rao said though, fortunately, there was no casualties or injuries, the fire fighting was a massive operation and the fire was not under control despite a 26-hour long effort. Fire fighters at the scene were spotted concentrating on stopping the fire from spreading to adjacent storage tanks.

District Collector N. Yuvaraj said 20 fire engines were from the fire department while another 20 had been requisitioned from else where. A  couple of engines with chemical foam were also brought in from chemical factories.

Hyderabad-based Biomax Fuels Limited, a company promoted by the erstwhile promoters of Matrix Labs, has a manufacturing capacity of five lakh tonnes of bio-diesel per annum. But, the BFL apparently lacks a dedicated fire engine and a regular fire-fighting team within the premises, said fire officials.

Sources said that the fire mishap took place at the storage tanks of raw fuel where Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) is stored. Of the 12 storage tanks, 10 storage tanks were gutted down and luckily the fire did not spread to the finished product, which is stored in adjacent six tanks or the four methane tanks.