At around 3 am this morning, the residents of Surat, Gujarat, were perplexed to see what seemed like a bright orange sunrise much earlier than usual. They later realized that the cause of the light was actually a fire that broke out at an Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) gas processing plant.
According to NDTV, locals heard the blasts as far as 10 km with some mistaking it for an earthquake. Twitter users shared visuals of what they initially thought was beautiful but turned out to be quite scary.
I woke up to drink water and almost mistook this for a sun rise,,, huge fires near the Surat ongc area pic.twitter.com/wMlxQ0Lo4s
— jans (@imsadstuff) September 23, 2020
This is what I saw from ma building at 3.30 am today!! pic.twitter.com/uAa7PWq3jN
— Ennu Mary Varghese (@anjsou) September 24, 2020
The Indian Express quoted Surat district collector Dr. Dhaval Patel saying,
“The incident took place at ONGC Hazira plant where a vapour cloud of hydrocarbon was sighted. A fire broke out at 3.05 am after three consecutive blasts. Several fire tenders are at the spot and are trying to bring the blaze under control. The fire took place in the gas terminal plant and the technical activity to reduce the air pressure has been carried out by the ONGC officials. Slowly, the fire is being brought under control. There is no need to shift the people in the area. No casualties have been so far reported.”
Massive blast at Surat ONGC plant at 3am, resident mistook it as sunrise. This is wake-up call for the govt. that #ONGC has encountered numerous such occurrence in past & still it's encountering such deadly encounters. "One death is tragedy , a million is statistics"#suratblast pic.twitter.com/HpoGSKWY1d
— ʀᴏꜱʜᴀɴ ᴀɢʀᴀᴡᴀʟ (@RoshanAgrawal98) September 24, 2020
was awake just to see this beautiful sunrise but then realised it’s four in the morning🙄 #Suratblast pic.twitter.com/Y7gH5FxrRP
— singhvi🌚 (@yashsinghvi420) September 24, 2020
Look like sunrise but this is massive fire in Surat ONGC plant👇
Fortunately no major casualty reported. #suratblast pic.twitter.com/IsxbX4HDz3— Atul Dwivedi (@imAtul_108) September 24, 2020
What is this ?
I just woke up and found something glowing and noisy towards the sea from Citylight Surat.This is unusual
Answer if you know, if you don’t just share so we could know #glow #glowing #night #glowinglight #surat #glowinglightinSurat #smc pic.twitter.com/dgMTTVyHri
— Anurag Khandelwal 🕉 (@Anurag0217) September 23, 2020
Ongc #suratblast last night 2.55-3.05am. Feel like earthquake aa gaya kya? Pic taken from @svnit pic.twitter.com/UgQnfyfhf4
— Param (@gparam786_lacey) September 24, 2020
#ONGC plant BLAST 🔥#Surat GUJARAT 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/v4ezLrZbVK
— Sohil Doidha (@Sohil_doidha) September 24, 2020
ONGC has tweeted saying that the fire has been brought under control and there are no injuries or casualties in the incident.
A fire was observed in the Hazira Gas processing plant in the morning today. Fire has been brought under control. There is no casualty or injury to any person.
— ONGC (@ONGC_) September 24, 2020
Fire at Hazira Plant has been completely extinguished. Efforts are being made to resume normal operations at the earliest.
— ONGC (@ONGC_) September 24, 2020
Earlier, we witnessed a terrible gas leak in Vizag and an oil well that caught fire in Assam. 2020 really has no mercy.