What happened

A flash fire broke out around 2:50pm during shutdown-related maintenance work on the MSQ (gasoline-production) unit at Indian Oil's Haldia refinery, which had been shut since early December for about 50 days of maintenance. 3 people died and 44 suffered burn injuries, mostly contractual workers and firefighters; no Indian Oil employee was injured. The fire was extinguished and brought under control quickly. This was an accidental industrial incident, not an attack.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.