RYAZAN, February 13. /ITAR-TASS/. The fire of oil tank cars in the territory of the Ryazan oil refinery was caused by gross violation of the safety regulations and negligence by railway workers and the manoevre crew at the station of Stenkino-2 of the Moscow-Ryazan section of the Moscow Railway, a Rosneft source said in a statement, commenting on the railroad accident that occurred late on Wednesday in Ryazan at the Rosneft-owned local oil refinery.

When the train was on the track at the refinery, during fastening work, tank cars separated from the train, descended uncontrolled, broke the refinery gates and rammed into a structure. The collision caused a fire, the company source said.

On Wednesday, the Moscow Railways press service denied that it was the railway company to blame for the accident. The fire broke out on tracks that are in the territory of the refinery and controlled by the refinery company. Fourteen cars, seven empty and seven loaded, came from the main track to the refinery on February 8 and remained there until the evening of February 12.

The tank cars were received by oil company workers, the railway press service noted.

A railway company source said workers at the plant violated the regulations to fasten cars and there was no proper control over the operation and safety of the load.

The fire that broke out at about 18:00 on Wednesday was completely extinguished at about 05:00 Moscow time on Thursday. A firefighting train was used in the work.

There were no deaths, nobody was hurt, and there was no threat to the population, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's Ryazan regional department reported on Thursday, adding that 306 people with 72 units of vehicles and equipment remained on duty at the site to control the situation.

Eleven tank cars caught fire at the site. The information about the blaze was received on Wednesday at 18:05 Moscow time.

The Rosneft press service told Itar-Tass a plan was ready to do repair and supply fuel during the period until the refinery returns to normal work. A group of top managers headed by the company's president Igor Sechin will oversee the work.