Fire in chemical shops, three hurt

A major fire broke out in some chemical shops in the old city area on Friday morning, damaging goods worth several lakhs and left three injured. The fire, which broke out in a chemical shop situated in the busy Trunck Bazaar area, spread to the third floor of the building and soon engulfed adjacent shops within seconds.

The flames emanating from the highly inflammable material and chemicals were so strong that a dozen of fire tenders failed to douse it.

Later, the Fire Brigade officials used foam and chemically-mixed water to douse the flames from the premises of Chemical Corporation and Thames Chemical.

Eyewitnesses said the fire broke out around 10.15 am, when an employee was mixing two chemicals, which led to an explosion. Two workers were badly injured while one received minor burns.

Residents said minor fires were a common feature in the area, but today's incident has raised some serious questions, such as why the authorities allowed the shop-owners to store highly inflammable material in congested areas.

Fire officer Amarjit Sharma said it took nearly three hours to control the fire. He said the factory had fire extinguishers, but flames were so severe that no one was able to enter the premises. He said according to initial estimates, property worth lakhs was damaged in the incident.

ALSO READ

34-yr-old crushed under truck, loses life to traffic jam

‘Rail roko’ protest by 1984 Sikh riot victims hits passengers

KVM employees strike work, parents, kids inconvenienced

‘Tantrik’ dupes family of Rs 4.15 lakh