FAISALABAD: A five-member inquiry committee neither determined the cause of a fire at an oil refinery unit, which had claimed the lives of six people and injured four others, nor did it recommend any action against any government official despite concluding that the factory had been working illegally for five years.

The committee, comprising the additional deputy commissioner (general), district officer (industries), director labour (west), DEO (Rescue 1122) and SP Admin and security, categorically mentioned in its findings that the unit was illegally set up in 2014 and no department concerned like the industries, environment, local government and labour had any information about it.

The Punjab government had tasked the inquiry committee with fixing responsibility for the accident, investigating its cause and recommending financial relief for the victims and preventive measures to avoid such incidents in the future.

On June 8, the fire erupted at the unitsituated at Chak 77-GB, Mullanpur Road, near Sidhar Bypass. Five people were burnt to death on the spot while another died at the Allied Hospital next day. Multiple explosions had taken place in a vessel/boiling container/chamber/kettle of the factory which was being used for refining used lubricants. The explosion resulted in huge shock waves and flames, which severely affected the workers. The roof of the buildingalso collapsed. It took the Rescue 1122 eight hours to control the blaze.

Thekariwala police registered a case against unit owners Malik Waseem and his partner Chishti, under section 322 of PPC on the statement ofsecurity constable-Muhammad Kamran.

The committee quoted the owner, saying the explosion had taken place due to a short-circuit of an electric water pump, which was adjacent to the vessel that exploded.

The factory was established in 2014 on an area of 10 kanal under the name of Phoenix Petroleum. Twenty labourers worked on different types of filtration/recycling equipment and heating vessels installed to remove contaminants and dirt from used lubricants to produce refined base oil or lube stock. Nine workers were working at the plant having the capacity of 20,000 litre oil to be sold to various industrial units, the committee said.

It mentioned in its findings that owners presented a photocopy of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) licence 19-2(222)/2015, dated Sept 20, 2019, as a licence for operations of the unit.

“But the very validity and genuineness of the bid document is doubtful. Because the owners have failed to present any case file. The licence presented pertains to the period 2019-20 while the unit is being run for the last 5 years. Even if it is admitted to be a relevant and genuine licence, still after getting NOC from Ogra, the owners severely violated its various provisions,” the report declared.

Giving details of the provisions, the committee said the unit has been illegally constructed/installed on agricultural land without obtaining a no objection certificate (NOC) from the district administration/Punjab govt, resultantly no department concerned like industries/environment/local government/labour had any information regarding this plant.

It has been mentioned in point (I) of licence that the owners/operators will obtain licence/NOC from the local govt/DC of Faisalabad. The owners couldn’t present any building plan of the factory/industrial unit that has been approved by the local government or any fitness certificate for installations at the site. In absence of any regulation, the workers were employed to operate the plant without observing any protective and safety measures, which resulted in the occurrence of the subject fatal incident.

The factory is poorly constructed due to which roof immediately collapsed after the explosion. There was no safety and precautionary apparatus available in the factory to ensure the minimal risk in case of any untoward incident. No safety and firefighting arrangements were available to avoid and control the fire. No insurance/social security coverage was provided to the workers.

As per an initial report, the deputy chief inspector of boilers, Faisal Waseem, no boiler or steam generator was installed at the plant. Therefore, there was no question of a boiler accident.

“The possible cause of the accident is difficult to establish precisely as all eyewitnesses who were in proximity to the incident have been killed in the explosions. However, by observing the installation quality of equipment, it is clear that hazard area classification has been violated during the installation of plant, resultantly sparking which happened owing to non-explosion proof electrical equipment or violation of SOP of the plant caused such grave loss of 6 precious human lives (sic).”

There was not even a single qualified engineer/technical expert hired for the plant so it is not difficult to imagine how a non-qualified person would make decisions to handle an emergency condition.

The major responsibility of this tragedy lies, along with owners of the plant, on different departments like Ogra and those of the provincial government which are supposed to regulate these industrial units to ensure that they adhere to safety and quality standards. The owner has exploited the vagueness in the NOC for his benefit, resulting in irreparable damage.

The committee recommended Rs2m compensation for the deceased and Rs500,000 for the injured persons to be paid by the factory owner and attachment of the land and unit till payment of compensation to the victims.

“Owing to the extremely technical nature of the incident, the conclusive judgment regarding the real cause of the fire or explosion can only be given by technical experts. The owners claim that the Ogra team had visited the site to ascertain the causes of the incident. Hence, it is proposed that input be sought from Ogra regarding its findings into the issue before further proceedings in the matter,” the committee report said.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2020