A massive oil well fire that has raged for more than five months in northeast India has finally been extinguished, officials said yesterday. Oil India engineers had battled the blaze in Assam state since an explosion in June, weeks after the well blew out and began discharging huge quantities of natural gas. Two employees of the state-owned company died in the blast, which sent a wall of flame and massive plumes of smoke into the sky. A third worker died in September after an accident at the site. Experts from Singapore, the United States and Canada joined efforts to contain the inferno, and Oil India spokesman Tridiv Hazarika yesterday said the fire had now been "doused completely".  The disaster cost Oil India more than $800,000 according to the firm's estimates, managing director Sushil Chandra Mishra told local media in late September.

Source: AFP