Dear all, I was present in the factory when the incident took place, the media has blown the incident out of proportion. The incident took place around 10.00 am when short cicuit test was done on a finished transformer. The test bed area is at the perimeter of the manufacturing block with a 20 feet wide and 30 feet high gate. The test was witnessed by the General Manager of the Transformer area and other senior officials alongwith customer representatives. There is some amount of oil dampness in the area. There was sudden flash and the sparklings fell in the oil splurge in that area and it caught fire. Although attempt was made to douse the fire it could not be controlled and the fire spread to surrounding areas. It continued to rage for the next nearly three hours.
Facts of the matter is that no body was injured at all, the transformer under test did not explode, two other transformers which were lined up for testing were damaged, the electricity supply and Gas (oxygen and accetylene) were restored in other blocks in the evening itself and production was in full swing from the second shift itself in other areas, the transformer block except for test area was functioing from the next day. There were huge transformer transformer oil storage tank in the vicinity but they did not catch fire nor any damage was caused. Only loss was that of the 3 damaged transformers and the test area that needs to be totally reconstructed. A fact finding enquiry is looking into the details of the reasons of the incident so also restoration of testing activity is taken up on fast track basis.
But the media without bothering to verify the ground realities has spread all sort of exaggerations and over simplifications.