5 Oct 2017 18:54

Fire at oil refinery kills 4 in Nizhny Novgorod region - authorities

NIZHNY NOVGOROD. Oct 5 (Interfax) - A fire that broke out at an oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region left four employees of a contracting firm dead, the Kstovo district administration's press service told Interfax on Thursday.

"Four people have been killed. They are employees of a contracting organization that was performing a project [there]," the press service said.

"Tank 2 was at risk, but the danger was prevented," it said.

A total of 120 firefighters and 31 vehicles are involved in putting out the 4-alarm fire, it said.

The Russian Energy Ministry said earlier that the location of five employees of the refinery remained unknown. The fire caused a fuel tank to explode on the refinery's premises.

The fire at Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (NORSI) in Kstovo occurred due to a violation of safety regulations by a contractor; the refinery is working normally, NORSI's press service said.

"Today at 2:10 p.m., a fire occurred at the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez plant in Kstovo during repairs to the gasoline tank conducted by contractor organizations. The presumed cause of the incident is a violation of industrial safety regulations. There is no danger to the main industrial site, where the plant's production facilities are located; the production unit is operating as normal," the press service said.