Fire at pharma unit near Dera Bassi

Satinder Pal Singh

Dera Bassi, June 4

Panic gripped residents of Haripur Hinduan village as a fire broke out in the Unit-II of Nectar Lifesciences Limited, a pharmaceutical company, on Friday night. However, no loss of human life was reported in the incident. It has been learnt that goods worth crores, besides a huge stock of pharmaceutical products and chemicals, were destroyed in the fire. The exact cause of the fire could not be ascertained yet, said officials at the factory.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire broke out around 9.15 pm at the solvent recovery plant in the Unit-II of Nectar Lifesciences Limited, located at Haripur Hinduan village on the Dera Bassi-Barwala road.

“The magnitude of the fire could be gauged from the fact that the administration had to arrange fire tenders from Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula after which eight fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames”, sources said.

The fire reportedly spread to the other section of the unit and destroyed raw material and furnished drugs. Besides the plant and machinery, the fire also damaged the building, the sources said. It took nearly three hours for the eight fire tenders from Dera Bassi, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali to douse the flames.

Manjeet Singh, Fire Officer, Dera Bassi, claimed to have received the information around 9.30 pm, and subsequently the fire engines were rushed to the spot. The Dera Bassi fire brigade rushed three fire tenders along with a team of firemen to extinguish the flames. After a struggle of nearly three hours, the firefighters could control the blaze.

The rescue work that started around 9.45 pm went on till 12.45 pm. Some fire officials were at the site till late midnight to see that the flames were doused completely, claimed the Fire Officer.

The residents of the area told The Tribune that they saw flames leaping above the height of the compound wall and heard explosions. Soon, the company premises was engulfed in dark smoke and fanned by the winds the smoke spread to the nearby villages.

The residents of Haripur Hinduan village, which is about one-and-half kilometre from the company, were affected the most because of the close proximity. For some time, panic gripped the people of the surrounding village and only when the fire service personnel doused the flames did they heave a sigh of relief.

Dinesh Dua, CEO, Nectar Lifesciences Ltd, said, “A special team from Mumbai is still investigating the exact cause of fire and the total estimated loss”. He said it was too early to say the exact loss as we still have to get the facts about the machinery and goods that were destroyed. He agreed that the unit had suffered extensive damage in the fire.