No casualties were reported.
A top-level government officer said the building fire safety norms had not been implemented at the plant.
The fire broke out at around 7.30 last evening at the plant located in the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone in Duvvada area.
In a statement, Director General, State Disaster Response and Fire Services, T A Tripathi, said BFL had no fire safety systems as prescribed in the National Building Code, 2005.
In his report to the Government, Tripathi said required safety distance between the storage tanks was not maintained; as a result the fire quickly spread from one tank to another.
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Collector Dr N Yuvaraj said in his report that according to the factory employees, short circuit in a motor sparked off the blaze.
Forty fire engines--20 from the state fire services and
the rest from the Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), HPCL-VR plant, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and some other establishments battled the fire.
IOC, HPCL-VR, Visakhapatnam Port, BPCL, Laurus and others provided more than 10,000 litres of foam which was used to contain the fire.
As the company's own fire-fighting team was about to start containing-and-dousing operation, there was a blast in tank No 4 following which the workers fled from the scene.
Biomax Fuels Ltd has a manufacturing capacity of five lakh tonnes of bio-diesel.
The Eastern Naval Command, meanwhile, said that nine fire tenders of Navy were deployed at the site.
Navy intially launched two aircraft for aerial reconnaissance and assessment of the extent of fire. Its Quick Reaction Team and an ambulance with a medical team were also rushed to the site with the fire tenders.