Two months after a gas leak at Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL)'s Bhilai steel plant claimed six lives, a fire broke out at a steel plant of IISCO, a SAIL subsidiary, on Thursday. The fire injured 21, of whom two were admitted to intensive care units.
"A preliminary inquiry has revealed it happened in the new coke oven battery; it was immediately extinguished. The incident occurred during a planned shutdown for carrying out rectification jobs in one of the pre-heaters," said a company statement.
The coke oven battery that caused the fire is part of SAIL's modernisation plan for IISCO. A Rs 16,480-crore modernisation and expansion programme is being carried out at the plant. This will increase the capacity of the plant to 2.5 million tonnes. "The blast furnace will be commissioned in two months. Today's fire will not affect the commissioning," said a SAIL official.
