Calcutta, July 2: A fire broke out in one of the furnaces of Haldia Petrochemicals today, causing an explosion and forcing the state-managed company to shut down.

No one was injured.

This is the second accident at HPL in six weeks. On May 24, three contract workers died while cleaning a gas chamber.

It is not known when the company will resume production, nor is it clear how much damage the fire caused.

A company statement said HPL’s “cracker unit tripped suddenly because of an apparent malfunctioning of some control systems and the furnace caught fire”.

However, insiders claimed it was an “operational mistake”, not a malfunctioning system, that led to the blaze. A gas compressor that sends gas to the naphtha cracker unit could not maintain the pressure, causing the unit to trip. An explosion took place in one of the cracker furnaces soon after and a fire broke out.

HPL had suffered a loss of Rs 275 crore last fiscal.

The statement said HPL personnel had brought the fire under control.

Subrata Gupta, managing director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and a government nominee on the HPL board, said “significant” damage had been noticed in the furnace but the extent would be assessed after the plant cooled down.