20191222 Fire in godown of textile mill, worker sleeping inside dies
India Dec 22 2019 “Building” “Warehouses”
Dead : dead 1 to 4 Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire in godown of textile mill, worker sleeping inside dies
Updated: 2019–12–23
LUDHIANA: A major fire broke out at the godown of a textile mill here in the wee hours of Sunday, killing a worker who was sleeping inside.
Deceased Banwari Lal (48) was from Rae Bareli and had joined Rosy Spinning Mills 15 days ago. He died of asphyxiation. The fire broke out in the textile manufacturer’s godown in Phase V of Focal Point. As the goods stored inside were flammable, the fire spread quickly and it took the fire brigade up to six hours to control the blaze.
A few workers were on the ground floor just after midnight when they realised that a fire had broken out on the first floor. They informed the owner, who rushed to the spot and sounded the fire department. While the workers were on the ground floor, Lal was sleeping on the first floor, where the fire broke out and no one realised he was missing.
Firemen, who reached the spot around 1am, and started operations right away spotted Lal lying unconscious on the first floor. The firemen claimed that they were not told about the presence of any worker inside the godown. The worker was taken to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
Meanwhile, before they could enter the factory, the firemen had to break all the shutter of the factory as those had been jammed by the heat created by the fire. A relative of Lal also worked in the factory, but he was sleeping on the ground floor and his colleagues woke him up on time.
A worker of the factory said all of them lived nearby, but had stayed back in the factory due to extreme cold outside.
The factory was spread in a large area and the godown was established in a hall. The fire department was able to contain the fire the first floor and it did not spread to the ground or second floor. Fire station officer S N Sharma said the fire was massive. “The godown was being used to store yarn, which is higly inflammable. We pressed into service fire tenders from all five stations of the city,” Sharma added.
He said though fire extinguishers were installed in the factory, they were were not sufficient and water had not been arranged by the factory owner. He said they refilled the fire tenders from Focal Point fire station.
Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Kulwant Singh from Jivan Nagar police station said factory owner Mahinder Singh, in his statement, had claimed that he was not aware of anybody sleeping inside the godown. “No legal action is being taken against anybody,” he said.
Web Source: The times of India