GUWAHATI: Two firefighters of the Oil India Limited (OIL) were found dead near the oil well blowout site in Assam's Tinsukia district on Wednesday morning.
The victims – Durlav Gogoi and Tikheswar Gohain – had been missing ever since a massive fire broke out at the site on Tuesday afternoon.
"We lost two of our men today (Wednesday). The cause of deaths could be drowning in the pond or suffocation," a spokesperson of the OIL said.
Quoting workers, the locals said the duo had jumped into a pond when the fire broke out. Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) retrieved the bodies with the help of drones used by Assam's Forest Department.
Another firefighter but of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) was injured at the site on Tuesday. He was rushed to the Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh and stated to be out of danger.
The fire has been controlled in a 1.5-km radius but it is still raging as natural gas is being fed by the well's oil.
The inferno has left a trail of devastation in nearby areas, including a famous beel (or billabong).
Environmentalists and wildlife activists are worried as the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, known for its feral horses, is less than two km away. The blowout – or uncontrolled emission of natural gas – occurred at the OIL's Baghjan Well No 5 on May 27. Ever since then, natural gas was spewing.
Official sources said personnel from the Army, Indian Air Force, NDRF, OIL and ONGC were engaged in dousing the fire.
The OIL had on Tuesday said: "The situation demands arrangement of large quantities of water, installation of high-discharge pumps and removal of debris. All the operations will take about four weeks. Efforts will be made to reduce this timeframe as much as possible”.
The OIL had on Sunday flown in three experts from Singapore-based firm, M/s Alert Disaster Control, to cap the blowout. They are at the site.