Last week’s fire at Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) claimed its first casualty with one of the 15 injured staffers succumbing to burn injuries at a hospital in Calcutta on Wednesday.

Saugata Samanta, 35, leaves behind his retired father, a four-year-old daughter and wife expecting their second child.

Saugata was his parent’s only child. He was an operator at the plant’s naphtha cracker unit where the fire broke out while the workers were repairing a valve last Friday. A gas leak is suspected to be the cause of the blaze. “We have no words to express the shock,” said Satya Narayan Samanta, Saugata’s uncle.

Saugata has been working at Haldia Petrochemicals for the past five years. He was a permanent employee.

Ashok Ghosh, the HPL’s plant head, said all efforts were made by the company to save Saugata and the best of treatment was provided in Calcutta.

“We deeply mourn his death,” Ghosh said on Wednesday.

Sources in the company said Saugata’s family would be “compensated fully” for the loss.