20221124 Red chilli worth crores gutted in Kalamna APMC godown fire
India Nov 24 2022 “Building” “Warehouses”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Red chilli worth crores gutted in Kalamna APMC godown fire
Updated: 2022-11-24
NAGPUR: Huge stock of red chilli worth crores of rupees was gutted in godown number 2 at Kalamna Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard in the early hours of Wednesday. The fire broke out reportedly due to short-circuit.
No loss of life was reported, Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s fire and emergency services department officiating chief fire officer DP Chandankhede told TOI.
There were 4,000 to 5,000 sacks of chilli stored in the godown at the time of mishap, say traders. The stock belonged to 15 traders and some farmers, who are now estimating their losses, said traders. Fire department, however, has estimated the loss to around Rs1 crore.
Apart from chilli stock, LPG cylinders, wooden furniture and weighing machines too were gutted in the fire.
Chilli trader Pankaj Talwekar said the fire started at around 1.50am, but the fire department was informed at around 2.18am. The intimation was delayed as no guard was deployed there, he said.
According to fire officials, they received call at around 2.20am. Soon, one fire tender from nearby Kalamna station was rushed to the spot. However, the fire tender got stuck in the maze of haphazardly parked vegetable trucks there. This further delayed arrival of the fire tender to the spot by almost 20 minutes, Talwekar said.
According to traders, the Agricultural Produce Market Committee never bothers to ensure trucks are parked systematically. Had the AMPC guards monitored this, the emergency vehicles could have reached the site on time and prevented further loss, they said. In view of the raging fire, 10 fire tenders were deployed and it took almost four hours to control the inferno.
Apart from chilli traders, firemen said Kalamna guards prevented them from using APMC water for firefighting which resulted in major loss. All this led to spreading of the fire to entire chilli stock kept in the godown.
Wholesale traders, who had stored the stock in the godown, rushed to the scene and claimed the APMC, which is earning around Rs5 crore from chilli traders alone, had not installed firefighting arrangements there.
Fire department is still clueless regarding the cause of the fire. However, traders claimed internal electrification of the godown was rectified by a civil contractor only a day ago. According to them, faulty work led to a short-circuit resulting in the fire.
Web Source: The Times of India