Fire destroys large section of Indian heavy electricals plant
12 October 2012
Block 3 of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) plant at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh was destroyed on October 10 when a 200 kW transformer exploded and the 19,000 litres of oil that it contained caught fire.
The transformer was being tested in the block when the explosion happened, blowing the roof off the building. The oil then caught fire, spreading across the site and into the underground cable gallery, resulting in a massive blaze that took hundreds of firefighters four hours to bring under control. There were around 800 employees in the block when the incident took place.
Workers at the plant told the Business Standard that one staff member was injured.
A spokesperson for BHEL said: “Probably, a short circuit triggered the blast. The exact reasons will be ascertained after investigations. But the fire is under control.”