29th October 2009, India.

A huge fire busted out at Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) fuel depository in Sitapura industrial region in the periphery of Jaipur on Thursday night Oct 29^th killing 5 people and also injured 150, the police said. The state officials said that the help of the military was required to help cover the fire at the storehouse which is exactly on highway near the airport of Jaipur.

“The fire is gigantic. We are finding it very hard to extinguish it,” the petroleum minister, Murli Deora said, three hours after the fire spread on Thursday night. The fire actually busted out at approximately 7.30 pm. Murli also added that on Friday he is actually leaving for Jaipur. Vast flames blasted into the air and due to the huge smoke many peoples in the villages around the depository feared and ran away from their houses. The fire also stretched up to some industrialized units in around a radius of approximately 3 kms completely destroying them.

A medical supervisor at SMS hospital, Dr Ashok Pangudia said that 2 persons were actually brought dead in the hospital. While one died in a Private hospital. “Some of the injured people had cracked injuries”, he said. Ashok Gehlot, Rajasthan’s chief minister said that the assistance of Army is needed to calm down the fire. However some army men have already joined the rescue process.

The injured persons were quickly shifted to Mahatma Gandhi and also SMS hospital. The fire actually broke out when the petrol was transferring from the fuel repository to a pipeline. A drip in pipeline is actually alleged to be the cause of the rage. The IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria told, the fire busted out in a petrol storage container and then quickly stretched to other tanks.