2 labourers charred to death in Himachal’s Bhatiyat area as plastic factory catches fire

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, December 24

In a devastating fire that suddenly broke out on Friday night around 10 pm in a plastic waste processing unit in the underdeveloped industrial area at Hatli near Sihunta in neighbouring Bhatiyat sub division of Chamba district.

Two out of the five labourers sleeping on the first floor of the factory building were burnt alive, whereas the three managed to escape.

The whole factory building structure and raw material as well as finished goods lying in the factory and its godown were gutted.

Surinder Awasthi, the owner of the processing unit ‘Awasthi Enterprises’, said that he had set up this unit three years back in Hatli’s underdeveloped industrial area and around 100 tonne of raw material and finished goods had been lying in the factory and its warehouse that had been burnt to ashes.

He lamented that he had suffered a huge loss to the tune of Rs 1.50 crore in this fire mishap. He said one of the labourers rung him at around 10.30 pm last night about the fire incident and he immediately rushed to the spot but was reduced to ashes by then.

The deceased labourers have been identified as Vivekanand Mehato (40) from Bihar and Suraj Kumar (35) from Nepal whose charred body remains were collected from the debris of the factory building on Saturday. As per information, Vivekanand was the factory worker whereas Suraj who was also a labourer had come to him and intended to work in the factory.

Meanwhile, the SDM had disbursed Rs 10,000 as immediate relief to the kin of the deceased. An electric short circuit is being presumed as a cause of this fire.

Chuwari SDM Sunil Kainth who supervised the whole rescue work since last night told The Tribune that six fire tenders had been requisitioned from Shahpur, Kangra and Dharamsala which started extinguishing the devastating fire last night and succeeded in controlling it by late this evening. “Since plastic material had been lying in the factory it took a long time to extinguish the fire. Heavy machinery like Poclain and JCB were also pressed into service to remove building debris from the mishap site. The police have taken possession of the charred body remains of the deceased persons and further forensic investigations are underway,” he said.