 "Mumbai's Butcher Island fire enters third day: 5 percent remains to be extinguished, lightning had caused blaze")
A fire at Butcher Island near Mumbai, which serves as an oil terminal, is expected to be extinguished completely by Monday morning, The Times of India reported. Butcher Island is located about 8.3 kilometres off Gateway of India on the Arabian Sea. The fire is now ‘in its dying stages’ and less than 5 percent of it still remains, The Times of India report quotes Sanjay Bhatia, the chairperson of the Mumbai Port Trust as saying. The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) manages the island as an oil terminal.
#LatestVisuals of #ButcherIsland fire in #Mumbai: Extinguishing operation is in process says Mumbai's chief fire officer Prabhat Rahangdale pic.twitter.com/37UyVxXyuu
— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2017
The oil tanks near the fire are being cooled with the help of water curtains, The Hindu reported. Water curtains use multiple hoses from different directions to put out a fire and to prevent it from spreading. The fire broke out on Friday evening at a high speed diesel tank off the Mumbai coast following a lightning strike. A 50-member team of firemen continues to battle the blaze. The firefighters initially succeeded in bringing the blaze under control, but “excessive heat” had led it to reignite around 4.30 am on Saturday. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has eight tanks at the farm located on the Butcher Island, also called Jawahar Dweep. Vessels bring crude and other commodities and offload the same at the Jawahar Dweep anchorage, which are stored in tanks and then ferried to the nearby refineries through underwater pipelines. Bhatia had said the blaze was contained to one tank farm owned by the BPCL. According to official sources, the affected tank’s capacity is around 40,000 tonnes, which was partly filled with high speed diesel. Nearly 25 percent has been lost in the flames. BPCL executive director Manohar Rao clarified that there would not be any shortage of HSD (high-speed diesel) in the market due to the fire incident. High speed diesel is normally used as a fuel in medium and high speed compression ignition engines in commercial vehicles, stationary diesel engines, locomotives and pumps. With inputs from agencies
