india

Updated: Apr 27, 2016 12:55 IST

A fire broke out at a bio-diesel manufacturing unit in the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ) in Duvvada on Tuesday night, officials said.

No casualties were reported in the incident at Biomax Fuels Limited (BFL) plant, officials said.

Biomax Fuels Ltd has a manufacturing capacity of five lakh tonnes of bio-diesel from multi-feedstock at VSEZ. There are about 15 storage tanks and the blaze spread to the 11 of them.

“Eight fire engines reached the spot and two fire engines with chemical foam were requisitioned from HPCL and Eastern Naval Command to put off the fire,” district fire officer JM Rao said.

According to eye witnesses, six oil tankers exploded due to the fire even as several fire engines rushed to bring the flames under control.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained and the fire tenders were unable to reach the storage area, Rao said.

District collector N Yuvaraj and other rushed to the spot and examined the operations.

Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu also spoke to top district civil and police officials, and naval authorities.

(With inputs from PTI, IANS)