Minor fire incident at Vizag steel plant

Visakhapatnam: A minor fire incident took place at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant’s Blast Furnace II on Friday afternoon. No one was injured in the mishap.

One of the vents bringing air into the Blast Furnace for combustion burst, allowing hot slag to leak. The slag fell on a platform and fire broke out at around 1.30 p.m. Fire tenders were deployed quickly and the fire was brought under control. The production in the BF II was shut down and all efforts were being taken to restore production, Chairman and Managing Director P Madhusudhan said. He ordered an inquiry into the incident. General Secretary of Visakha Steel Employees Congress (INTUC) Rajsekhar Mantri, along with other leaders, visited the the Steel Plant. He expresses concern over the accident. The monetary loss was yet to be estimated and some of the workmen present there at the BF-2 ran helter-skelter for safety. Rajsekhar alleged that the maintenance work was given to Messrs Siemens Company, which, he said, was not executing the work satisfactorily.

Vice-president of the Steel Plant recognised union Varasala Srinivasa Rao alleged that the accident had happened because human error.