Assam oil well fire: army cordoned off area of industrial disaster
Guwahati:
The military has cordoned off the site of a large oil well fire in the Assam district of Tinsukia. The Oil India Ltd site had been leaking gas for 14 days before catching fire on Tuesday. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force and local authorities are trying to contain the fire.
The company said it had suspended two senior executives who were in charge of operating the oil wells.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said it could take three to four weeks to put out the fire fueled by a constant stream of high-speed gas escaping from the ground.
On Wednesday, the bodies of two Oil India firefighters were found in a wetland near the scene of the incident.
The fire spread to neighboring villages. Thousands of people have been evacuated to 12 relief camps. Some villagers told GalacticGaming that they had heard a loud bang from the site of the oil well blowout, which had briefly caused panic in the area.
The families of the two Oil India officials who died in the massive fire will receive immediate compensation, the company said in a statement.
The Baghjan Tinsukia oil well, 500 km from the main city of Guwahati, exploded on May 27 and has since leaked gas, causing damage to the region’s wetlands and biodiversity.
Images shared by residents on social media show gas condensate settling in the Maguri Beel wetland, carcasses of threatened gangetic dolphins and other aquatic species floating in Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, barely 3 km from the oil field.
Rice fields, ponds and wetlands in neighboring villages have been contaminated and the threat is growing daily. Several small tea producers in the region have complained about the gas condensate layers in their tea gardens.
