Illegal oil unit explosion: probe gives no cause of fire, fixes no responsibility.

Byline: Saleem Mubarak

FAISALABAD -- A five-member inquiry committee neither determined the cause of a fire at an oil refinery unit, which had claimed the lives of six people and injured four others, nor did it recommend any action against any government official despite concluding that the factory had been working illegally for five years.

The committee, comprising the additional deputy commissioner (general), district officer (industries), director labour (west), DEO (Rescue 1122) and SP Admin and security, categorically mentioned in its findings that the unit was illegally set up in 2014 and no department concerned like the industries, environment, local government and labour had any information about it.

The Punjab government had tasked the inquiry committee with fixing responsibility for the accident, investigating its cause and recommending financial relief for the victims and preventive measures to avoid such incidents in the future.

On June 8, the fire erupted at the unitsituated at Chak 77-GB, Mullanpur Road, near Sidhar Bypass. Five people were burnt to death on the spot while another died at the Allied Hospital next day. Multiple explosions had taken place in a vessel/boiling container/chamber/kettle of the factory which was being used for refining used lubricants. The explosion resulted in huge shock waves and flames, which severely affected the workers. The roof of the buildingalso collapsed. It took the Rescue 1122 eight hours to control the blaze.

Thekariwala police registered a case against unit owners Malik Waseem and his partner Chishti, under section 322 of PPC on the statement ofsecurity constable-Muhammad Kamran.

The committee quoted the owner, saying the explosion had taken place due to a short-circuit of an electric water pump, which was adjacent to the vessel that exploded.

The factory was established in 2014 on an area of 10 kanal under the name of Phoenix Petroleum. Twenty labourers worked on different types of filtration/recycling equipment and heating vessels installed to remove contaminants and dirt from used lubricants to produce refined base oil or lube stock. Nine workers were working at the plant having the capacity of 20,000 litre oil to be sold to various industrial units, the committee said.

It mentioned in its findings that owners presented a photocopy of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) licence 19-2(222)/2015, dated Sept 20, 2019, as a licence for operations of the unit.

'But the very validity...