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IOC blaze leaves ghost towns Jaipur, October 31 While the administration awaits fire-fighting operations at the depot, the death toll in the tragedy has mounted to eight with the authorities today recovering bodies of three missing IOC employees. While identity of the two bodies had been established, that of the third was yet to be done. Also, over 100 persons with minor injuries have been discharged from various hospitals in the city while 32 others are still under treatment, condition of the two of them stated to be critical.Chief Fire Officer Ishwar Lal Jat said the fire had died down in four of the 11 storage tanks at the depot, but was still raging in seven others, out of which three each contained petrol and diesel. He said it might take another 12-24 hours before they could start their fire extinguishing work. Meanwhile, the Army today started working on a fire trench with an aim to contain the fire from spreading to surrounding areas. BG Joseph, SP (Jaipur City East), said the trench would stop the fire from spreading on ground after it reached bottom of the oil tank. The IOC officials have pegged their total losses at Rs 300 crore. BM Bansal, Director (P&BD), IOC, said while the oil losses amount to Rs 140 crore, the rest are that of infrastructure. He said it would take at least 15-18 months for the IOC to rebuild the facility in Jaipur.Meanwhile, lakhs of residents of theaffected villages have been evacuated. The people have left for safer places along with their livestock. The only people seen here are firemen, cops, Army personnel and administration officials. Lamented Shiv Prasad, a resident of Sitapura village: “We lost everything on Thursday night. The villagers have asked me and a few other men to take care of their belongings.” Sukh Charan of Jirota village said it merely took an hour or so for the entire village to get vacated. “Each house in the village was locked by Friday morning.” A series of explosions at the IOC depot has caused extensive damage to schools, government buildings, houses and shops in these villages. While their roofs caved in and doors and windows got damaged, cracks have surfaced on their walls. Displaced from their houses, the residents of these villagers are clueless as to how and when they will return to their normal lives. The displaced villagers are also worried about safety of their houses, particularly in view of reports of burglary in some areas. As if the fire tragedy was not enough for these families, a few persons, particularly kids, went missing in the chaos on the fateful night of October 29. Six-year-old Muskaan, daughter of Mohd Rafiq and Shamim Bano, went missing while they were being evacuated from their village. A resident of Govind Vihar, Rafiq along with his family has taken shelter at one of the relief camps at a government school in Vatika area. “She had held my hand while we were leaving the village, but she went missing in the stampede,” rued Shamim, with tears rolling down her cheeks. Jaipur Collector Kuldeep Ranka admitted that a few children had gone missing from these villages. However, he said except for one all other missing kids had been reunited with their families. The tragedy has given sleepless nights to the owners of industrial units here as well as labourers working with them. ..Aaround 500 factories of the total 1,100 in the area suffered losses worth crores in form of infrastructure damage, loss of machinery and material. Trail of destruction n
Over 5 lakh persons, in the radius of 5 kms, have been moved to safer locations
n Fire has died down in four of the 11 storage tanks at the depot n
It might take another 12-24 hours for fire extinguishing work to begin n
500 factories of the total 1,100 in the area have suffered huge losses n
Total loss of Rs 300 crore has been estimated
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