Fire-fighting operation on Butcher Island over: Mumbai Port

Mumbai: Fire-fighting operation at the fuel tank farm of the Mumbai Port Trust on Butcher Island off Mumbai’s coast was “completed successfully” this morning, three days after the blaze broke out in a high-speed diesel tank, a top official said.

The island, officially known as Jawahar Dweep, houses a marine oil terminal of the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT). “Operation at Jawahar Dweep island is completed successfully,” said Sanjay Bhatia, MbPT chairman. Multiple agencies such as the MbPT, oil major BPCL (which owns the tank that caught fire), ONGC, state planning agency CIDCO and fire services of Maharashtra government carried out a joint operation to contain the fire, he said.

Prima facie a lightning strike on Friday evening — when Mumbai and surrounding areas received thundershowers — triggered the fire, Bhatia said. It will take another few hours for smoldering inside the tank to stop, he said. Regular operations on the island will resume only after a thorough inspection of pipelines and other infrastructure, he said.

Mumbai fire brigade chief P S Rahangdale, who supervised the operation on behalf of the Mumbai fire brigade, said, “At present controlled-burning and extinguishing operation is in process. Very little high-speed diesel is left in the tank.”  Tank number 13 of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) which caught fire had collapsed inwards a little, BPCL executive director Manohar Rao had said yesterday.

BPCL has eight tanks on Butcher Island. The fire was limited to only one tank. No casualty was reported during the mishap. Crude oil and other commodities are offloaded at the Jawahar Dweep anchorage and stored in tanks before being transported to nearby refineries through underwater pipelines. Rao had said the incident will not cause shortage of high-speed diesel in the market.