Bhilai, Apr 10, 2019: Fire broke out at the Fume Exhauster of PBCC of Coke Ovens and Coal Chemical Department on the intervening night of Wednesday. Fire fighters struggled for about two hours to douse the flames. Fortunately there were no casualties.
For exploring the causes of fire outbreak, the safety committee of Hindustan Steel Employees Union (CITU) conducted inspection at the mishap site. It needs to be mentioned here that “fume exhauster” is a chimney system which has been installed in the Coke Ovens to pump out the fumes produced here.
Safety committee found that the inlet pipe of the Fume Exhauster Chimney was in dilapidated state and there were cracks and holes at several spots on it. It is suspected that some spark might had entered into the chimney from the opening and would have ignited the coal dust collected on the walls of the pipe. Some other employees suspected that the temperature of steam would have risen considerably and would have caused self ignition of the coal dust.