The expert committee of National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) scientists in their preliminary report on the incident of fire that broke out in OCT (Organic Chemistry Technology Division) lab at NCL recently, has ruled out the possibilities of sabotage. The committee stated chemical accident and static electrical charge as the potential cause of the fire. The committee is of the view that the most plausible cause of the fire is due to ignition of the accumulated solvent vapour by sparks generated from electrical short circuiting in the appliances located in the vicinity of the site of the accident.

The expert committee was chaired by Dr. K.N. Ganesh, Head, Organic Chemistry Division and other two scientists members were Dr. S. Devotta, Head, Process Engineering and Development Division and Dr. G.S. Grover, Head Engineering Services Division. Along with the NCL scientists the three external experts specialized in the area of Fire and Safety, namely, I.G. Dudhani, Assistant Manager (Fire and Safety), HAL, Pimpri, Pune, Pallabh Roy, Scientist, HOD/SED, HEMRL, Pune and S.H. Mutha, Safety Officer, Sudarshan Chemical Industries, Pune also conducted a preliminary inquiry into the cause of fire that took place in Laboratory Room No. 178 around 5.40 p.m. on Sunday, the 12th January, 2003.

The Committee interviewed all the individual members who were present at the time when the fire broke out, inspected the site, examined the electrical wirings, fittings and assessed the nature of damage caused. Based on a careful examination of the site and eye witness accounts, the committee opined that the cause of fire could have been a spark from short circuiting in any of the electrical appliances, igniting the accumulated vapours of the solvent in the vicinity of the spark.

The report further said that laboratory room No. 178 was completely gutted. All the work tables, minor laboratory equipment, stirrers, oven, fittings, refrigerators, chemicals, consumables, were completely lost. The laboratory room No. 178, however, did not house any expensive equipment. The committee estimated the loss to be around Rs. 20 lakh.