Mumbai: Fire fighting operations at the Mumbai Port Trust’s (MbPT) fuel tank farm on Butcher Island, located off the city coast, was completed successfully this morning, officials said on Monday. The blaze started three days ago. The island, officially known as Jawahar Dweep, houses a marine oil terminal.
“Operation at Jawahar Dweep is completed successfully,” Sanjay Bhatia, chairman, MbPT, said. Multiple agencies including the MbPT, oil major BPCL (which owns the tank that caught fire), ONGC, State planning agency CIDCO and the State government’s fire services pooled their resources in a joint operation to contain the fire, he said.
Prima facie a lightning strike on Friday evening, when the city and its suburbs experienced thundershowers, triggered the fire, Mr. Bhatia said. “It will take another few hours for the smouldering inside the tank to stop. Regular operations on the island will resume only after a thorough inspection of pipelines and other infrastructure.”
P.S. Rahangdale, Chief Fire Officer, BMC, who supervised the operation on behalf of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, said, “At present, a controlled burning and extinguishing operation is in progress. Very little high-speed diesel is left in the tank.”
On Sunday, after two days of being on fire, tank number 13 had collapsed inward slightly. BPCL has eight tanks on Butcher Island. No casualty was reported.
Crude oil and other commodities are offloaded at Butcher Island anchorage and stored in tanks before being transported to nearby refineries through underwater pipelines.
