Fire breaks out at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant blast furnace, none hurt | Visakhapatnam News

VISAKHAPATNAM: A minor fire accident occurred at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) on Saturday morning after two tuyeres burst in blast furnace (BF)-2.
No casualties or injuries were reported.
According to sources, the blast was caused by an incorrect cooling process of the tuyeres. A circular crane was burnt in BF-2, cooling pipes were damages and large quantities of coke and iron ore were scattered in the oven after the blast.
Officials at VSP said tuyeres bursting are common at steel plants and the incident was a minor one. They added that production is likely to resume in the next 24 hours. Workers, however, said the loss to production and equipment would run into crores and restoration would take five days.
Workers complained that a lack of maintenance of and focus on the cooling system had caused the mishap. “Cooling of tuyeres is important. Earlier, manpower was used to regulate the cooling process but now machine technology has been adopted. Apart from this, instead of coal, the pulverized coal injection method (PCI) is adopted, which means coal dust is added to the fire, which causes the hot metal to melt immediately. The mishap has caused a loss of more than Rs 10 crore to the plant,” a worker in BF-2 told STOI on condition of anonymity. Fire tenders rushed the spot and brought the blaze under control, VSP officials said.