Fire ravages Whirlpool warehouse in Wagholi

A warehouse of Whirlpool of India Limited company at Wagholi was ravaged in fire on Monday late evening. It took nearly six hours for the fire brigade to extinguish the fire as private water tankers pressed into service escaped in the middle of the action. There were no casualties but huge loss of property was reported as the fire triggered explosion of acetylene cylinders.

Ramesh Gangad, assistant divisional officer of fire brigade, said, "We got a call about fire at Whirlpool of India Limited company at our control room around 9. It was a godown of spare parts in Wagholi on Pune-Ahmednagar Road. By the time fire brigade teams reached the spot, half of the godown was gutted. The cause of the fire was not known." Gangad said as the spot was out of the city, we had sought services of private water tankers.

"Five private water tankers had come to the spot for helping us. But as the fire spread over a larger area, the acetylene cylinders in the godown exploded. It may have created a fear among drivers of the private tankers and all of them fled from the spot. Four of them left their tankers on the spot, while the fifth driver drove away with his tanker. The Pune rural police officials who were at the spot tried to stop them but they refused to do so saying they would not want to risk their lives," Gangad said, adding the operation was delayed, but later owner of a godown Nandakumar Katke came to our rescue. "Katke allowed us to lift water from his well and we started the action again. Two fire tenders and 15 firemen were involved in the action. By 3 am the situation was under control," he added.

Project manager of Whirlpool of India Limited Kamlesh Ghate said, "We do not know how the fire broke out. We have reported the incident to the police. Our security guard was alert and was the first one see the flames and inform our officials," he said.

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