Bhubaneswar, Aug. 18: Six persons were injured in a fire that broke out at the engine division of the MIG factory of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) located at Sunabeda, nearly 20 kilometres from the Koraput district headquarters. The injured include two engineers, three workmen and one contractual labour.
The incident took place around 8am when all the victims were working at the compressor shop of the plant. The fire started while petrol was being shifted from a large container to a smaller one through a pipe.
HAL officials said a short circuit might have ignited the petrol container, which resulted in the fire.
It was brought under control within 15 minutes. But by that time, six persons had been injured.
“Thankfully, the fire did not spread to other parts. There was another petrol container kept near the site. Chances of a major fire were averted,” said a senior HAL official.
Five of those injured sustained burn injuries below 25 per cent. The other person has 40 per cent burns. The injured have been identified as Mukesh Sivaratri, 38, K.C. Sahu, 33, M. Mangaraj, 58, Padmanav Patnaik, 57, D.K. Mishra, 59, and Subash Khara, 44. Sivaratri and Sahu are engineers, Mangaraj, Patnaik, Mishra are workmen and Khara is a contractual labourer.
The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital and later moved to a Visakhapatnam-based private hospital. “We decided to move the victims to a private hospital in Visakhapatnam as the hospital on our factory premises is not adequately equipped to deal with burn injuries. We are in constant touch with the hospital authorities and the health of all the victims is stable,” said HAL’s manager of industrial relations Suryakant Rout.
An inquiry would be conducted to ascertain the cause behind the fire, said Rout.
Koraput police chief Avinash Kumar said the police would also conduct an investigation into the fire. “We will start an inquiry into the matter after the victims recover,” said Kumar.
The engine division, a unit of HAL’s network, was set up at Sunabeda in April 1964 to manufacture R11-f2 turbo jet engine of MiG-21 FL aircraft with the technical support of erstwhile the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).
The division has the distinction of manufacturing almost all types of components required for manufacture and overhaul of engines and spares for service exploitation. It is equipped with modern forge and foundry shops, which cater to the requirements of prevision forgings and castings.
