Butcher Island fire now under control

After almost two days of firefighting operations by the Mumbai Fire Brigade, MbPT Fire Brigade and BPCL firefighters, the fire that broke out at Butcher Island, also known as Jawahar Deep, on Friday evening has been brought under control.

Now, according to officials, the cooling process is underway which is likely to continue for the next 10 to 15 hours at least. It is believed that the fire was caused by a lightning strike at the oil terminal on Friday evening.

Prabhat Rahangdale, chief fire officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade said that the fire has been brought under control. The fire was confined to high-speed diesel (HSD, about 32 MT) in tank number 13 which exploded due to high heat and fire.

Although the tank was almost 90 per cent vacant after two days of continuous fire, the biggest challenge before the firefighting officials was controlling the vapour of high-speed diesel (HSD) that had accumulated in the tank. "The vapour of oil is more dangerous than oil which blasts and poses a huge risk of spreading fire," said Rahangdale.

VR Joglekar, spokesperson, MbPT said, "The situation is under control and the firefighters have successfully prevented the fire from spreading to other tanks. However we can't say how much more time it would take to douse the fire completely."

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) owns eight tank farms at Butcher Island, which are used for storage of petroleum products that include high-speed diesel, low-speed diesel oil and white petrol.