Monday's Vizag refinery fire hurt no one. That is no reason to keep its cause private

At about 10 o’clock on Monday night, people living around the Hindustan Petroleum refinery in Visakhapatnam heard what sounded like explosions, then saw flames rise over the plant and smoke drift across their neighbourhoods. Fire tenders raced in. Within a short time HPCL said the fire, confined to a pitch storage tank area, was out, that no one had been hurt and that every unit of the refinery was working safely.

That is a good outcome, and the refinery’s fire crews and the Andhra Pradesh Fire Department deserve credit for it. The revenue divisional officer, Dileep Chakravarthy, went to the site and told the city there was “no cause for worry”. He also promised an inquiry “as per industry safety norms”.

The inquiry is the part that matters now. Visakhapatnam has heard reassurance before.

A refinery with a history

In August 2013, a cooling tower being built at the same refinery exploded after gas leaked from a pipeline feeding it. Twenty-three people died, and all but one of them were contract workers. In May 2021 a leak in an overhead line set crude distillation unit 3 on fire; about 3,000 employees fled and 13 fire tenders, some from the Navy, were needed to put it out. Nobody died that time either.

The belt around the refinery has a harder record still. In May 2020, styrene vapour escaped from an old storage tank at LG Polymers and killed 12 people in the villages nearby. The committee that investigated found that the company had ignored warning signs for a month and treated a rising chemical reading as a quality problem rather than a safety one. In August 2024, an explosion at the Escientia pharmaceutical plant at Atchutapuram, in neighbouring Anakapalli district, killed at least 17 workers.

Each disaster was followed by an inquiry. What people living next to these plants seldom get is a plain account of what went wrong and what was changed.

The fair objection

There is a reasonable case for restraint. A refinery handles fuel at high heat and pressure, and no plant anywhere can promise that nothing will ever catch fire. Monday’s blaze was contained quickly, which suggests the systems worked. Companies also worry that publishing internal findings invites panic, lawsuits or a security risk to a critical plant.

But a published finding is not a blueprint. Saying what failed in a pitch tank, and what has been done about it, endangers no one. Silence, on the other hand, leaves a city to judge the next set of flames by rumour.

What should happen now

First, HPCL should publish the cause of Monday’s fire and the steps taken, in plain language, within weeks rather than months, and the Oil Industry Safety Directorate’s own findings should be made public too.

Second, the state’s inquiry promised by the RDO should be completed on a fixed date and its report released, not filed away.

Third, Andhra Pradesh should put the inspection reports of major hazard plants in the Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli belt online, with their off-site emergency plans: what the warning will be, where residents should go and who will tell them.

Fourth, contract workers, who did most of the dying in 2013, should get the same safety training and protective equipment as permanent staff, and that should be checked by inspectors, not assumed.

Monday’s fire ended without a single injury. That is exactly the moment to learn from it, before the next one does not.

Fires, blasts and leaks around Visakhapatnam

1. 23 Aug 2013Cooling tower blast at the HPCL refinery; toll reaches 23, nearly all contract workers
2. 7 May 2020Styrene leak at LG Polymers kills 12 in nearby villages
3. 25 May 2021Fire at crude distillation unit 3 of the HPCL refinery; about 3,000 employees evacuated, no deaths
4. 21 Aug 2024Explosion at the Escientia pharmaceutical plant at Atchutapuram kills at least 17
5. 2 Nov 2026Blast and fire in a pitch tank area at the HPCL refinery, contained with no injuries