Assam: Two firefighters killed in Baghjan oil well tragedy, fire continues to rage on

The crisis continues at Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia district with the massive fire continuing to rage on for the second straight day after it broke out at the site of Oil India Limited’s oilfield yesterday.

In the latest move to tackle the situation at hand, army has been deployed at Baghjan. The army has been deployed in the area to take part in the efforts to contain the spread of fire as well as to maintain the law and order scenario there.

Meanwhile, two firefighters have lost their lives in the incident. Earlier in the morning there had been reports of two Oil India Limited’s fire fighters going missing yesterday.

Their bodies were recovered by an NDRF team today. The bodies of Durlov Gogoi and Tikeshwar Gohain were recovered from a pond near the site of fire and were then taken for post mortem. Soon after the news broke out, a pall of gloom descended on the houses of the victims.

It needs to be mentioned here that Durlov Gogoi was also a former goalkeeper of the Assam football team. Family members of Tikeshwar Gohain were also shattered by the news of his death.

A team of experts are at the site monitoring the situation and assessing the next course of action.

The incident continues to create widespread panic among the locals who have been bearing the brunt of the uncontrolled gas blowout for more than a fortnight now.

As per sources, close to 200 people were working at the site when the fire broke out. Meanwhile, local residents were shifted to a nearby camp where they have been kept after the raging fire spread in the vicinity and reportedly gutted around 50 houses. All efforts to bring the fire under control have failed so far.

NDRF teams were deployed yesterday in the area and they have been engaged in shifting the locals to safer grounds, away from the raging fire.

But making matters worse, the fire is also posing an immediate threat to the nearby Maguri Beel lake and the Dibru Saikhowa National Park.

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Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal called up union defence minister Rajnath Singh, home minister Amit Shah and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan yesterday and apprised them of the situation at hand. Assam industry minister Chandramohan Patowary was also rushed to the spot yesterday to take stock of the situation.

Oil India Limited has hinted that it might take close to a month to bring the entire situation under control.

This was hinted in a press release by OIL where it was stated that all the operations with the ALERT team will take about 4 weeks at the site of crisis. It was also stated that efforts will be on meanwhile to reduce the timeframe as much as possible.