New Delhi: A major fire broke out at the steel melting shop of SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) in Jharkhand and it took around five hours to douse the flame, officials said on Friday. A portion of the Steel Melting Shop was gutted in the blaze. However, no casualties were reported in the incident.

An investigation has started to find out how the fire had broken out, officials said.

The incident occurred around 11 PM on Thursday due to hot metal leakage, the official said.

"Metal leakage has been reported in Tundish 3 of Caster 2 in Steel Melting Shop (SMS) 2 due to which there is a fire in the caster. No casualties were reported," Chief of Communication, Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL), Manikant Dhan, told PTI.

The Tundish car of SMS 2 and large parts of Caster 2 have been gutted by the blaze.

Tundish is a broad open container with one or more holes at the bottom, used mainly in plumbing or metal-founding. A Tundish car is used to support and convey the tundish for casting or heating.

In the caster, the liquid steel passes through a mould as it cools.

Several fire tenders have been pressed into service and it took around five hours to put out the blaze.

"A probe is on to find out the exact causes of the fire. Efforts are also on to resume full production in the unit," an official said on Friday.

Asked about the estimated production loss due to the fire, the official said it has not been ascertained yet.

A SAIL official said that at the time of the incident, no worker was present at the automated unit.

Around 1,000 workers are deployed in the entire plant spread over more than 10,000 acres.

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