Dibrugarh (Assam), November 7: The death toll in Friday's explosion and fire at Oil India Limited's (OIL) Intermediate Tank Farm (ITF) in Tengakhat, in Assam's Dibrugarh district, has risen to three. Rupam Gogoi, an injured worker from Chabua who had been shifted to a private hospital in Guwahati for advanced treatment, succumbed to his injuries at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, Borok Times and NEWire reported.

Source: Borok Times

Gogoi's death follows two earlier fatalities from the same accident. Tapas Gogoi, 40, a resident of Milan Nagar in Dibrugarh, died at around 3 a.m. on Saturday at a private hospital in Dibrugarh, PTI reported earlier. The first victim, Raju Dutta, died on Friday after the force of the explosion threw him away from the affected area, the reports said.

Source: NEWire

Nine workers were at the site, seven injured

Nine workers were present at the site when the explosion occurred on Friday, and seven of them sustained injuries, officials said in earlier statements. The injured were workers of Spectron Engineers Private Limited, a Mumbai-based company engaged by Oil India for operations and maintenance work at the tank farm. The injured workers named in the first reports were Shailen Gogoi (45), Kumud Gogoi (38), Golap Dutta (58) and Indra Gogoi (40), all residents of Tengakhat; they were initially taken to Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh, and some were later shifted to private hospitals.

Source: PTI via The Hindu BusinessLine

The fire erupted at around 9.05 a.m. on Friday during maintenance work at the tank farm, Oil India said in its statement. Preliminary reports suggested the explosion took place in the crude oil storage section while a valve was being operated; the exact cause has not yet been officially established. Oil India's fire service, district fire teams and the State Disaster Response Force brought the blaze under control, and officials said no local evacuation was needed.

Source: Borok Times

Inquiries under way, cause not yet established

Oil India has set up an internal inquiry into the accident and the Dibrugarh district administration has opened its own investigation, the reports said. Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the Lok Sabha MP from Dibrugarh, had earlier spoken to the Oil India Chairman and Managing Director to take stock of the situation, urged the best medical treatment for the injured and called for appropriate compensation for the families of those who died, ANI reported.

Source: NEWire

The other injured workers remain under treatment in hospital. No fresh official statement on their condition, or on the cause of the explosion, had been reported in the latest accounts at the time of publishing.