Fire at SAIL's IISCO plant in West Bengal; 21 injured, 2 in ICU

KOLKATA: Twenty one persons were injured in a fire that occurred at SAIL’s IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) on Thursday. According to a preliminary enquiry, the incident which took place at 12.15 pm, started at the New Coke Oven Battery No. 11 inside the plant, Steel Authority of India said in a statement.

The incident occurred during a planned shutdown taken for carrying out rectification jobs in one of the pre-heaters of the coke oven battery. The 21 affected persons have been provided immediate medical attention, both at the Plant Medical Unit and at Burnpur hospital. Out of these, 2 persons belonging to contractor, M/s BEC have been admitted to ICU.

The incident comes at a time when IISCo has started the countdown to commence production from its new Rs 17,000 crore integrated steel plant next month. As part of the process, the new plant's First Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) was lit up on September 14.