Two oil tankers go up in flames
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 10 2018: Two oil tankers were completely destroyed when a devastating fire broke out at a parking lot belonging to one Sanjoy at Khatkhati, Assam.

The fire which broke out at around 1 pm today also ravaged a nearby shop which has two rooms.

The parking lot is used as third parking space by oil tankers and LPG bullets engaged in transporting fuels and LPG to Imphal.

There is a big godown just beside the parking lot and the godown is allegedly used for siphoning off petrol, diesel and kerosene from tankers in clandestine manner.

The raging inferno was brought under control after much struggle by fire tenders stationed at Dimapur.

However, the cause and origin of the fire is not known yet.

There are suspicions that some drivers of Imphal-bound oil tankers, taking advantage of the time gap spent in waiting CRPF escorts, cut steel rods used in locking oil tanks and siphon off fuels and replace the same quantity of fuels with fuels of inferior grade.

There have been instances when steel rods used for locking oil tanks were found cut as the oil tankers reached Malom depot.

When questioned by a oil pump owner, one driver disclosed that the steel rods were cut at Khatkhati and the high grade fuels were siphoned off before replacing the siphoned off quantities with low grade fuels.

The same place which was ravaged by inferno today witnessed a similar devastating fire about a year back and one oil tanker was completely destroyed, informed a source.

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