KARACHI, July 10: The National Refinery (NRL) on Wednesday initiated an inquiry into the incident of fire which erupted on Tuesday evening in a plant of the refinery, killing three labourers and injuring two others.

Action will be taken against officials of the NRL’s Safety Department if found in dereliction of their duty, sourcessaid and claimed that sparks from welding, being carried out at that time, had ignited the fire.

They further claimed that the labourers at work were not trained enough to carry out maintenance at a refinery even after the plant was shut down. They said if the fire had not been put out in time, it would have engulfed other plants in the twinkling of an eye.

“There was a shutdown at that plant and no welding was being carried out at the time of the incident,” the NRL’s general manager for finance, Asad Siddiqui, told Dawn.

“As far as welding is concerned, a complete procedure is pursued and after a formal permission by the Safety Department, the welding is carried out.”

About the inquiry, he said: “We are not in a position right now to declare the cause of fire as the inquiry into the incident is in progress.”

He said the contract for the maintenance had been given out to Chaudhry Omar & Company and the Karachi-based German company Siemens.

They had been associated with the NRL for a long time and their labourers were experienced enough to work on the plant, he added.

A senior official of Siemens, Ziaul Islam Zuberi, said: “There is no involvement of Siemens in the Tuesday’s fire incident at NRL as we don’t have any agreement with the NRL in this respect.”

A press release issued by the company on Tuesday night stated that four persons suffered serious burns and were taken to a hospital, where three of them died. Another was seriously injured and admitted to a hospital.

Zawar Hussain, Abdul Ghaffar, and Shoukat Ali died of burns. Mohammad Khalid and Rashid Gohar were taken to separate private hospitals, where the condition of one of them is serious.

“Rashid Gohar, 25, has suffered 80 per cent burns and his condition is very serious. He is being treated at the intensive care unit,” a doctor at Plastic Surgery Hospital said.

The other injured man, Mohammad Khalid, admitted to Hill Park View Hospital, is stated to be out of danger.