Fire breaks out in Baddi pharmaceutical unit

A massive fire broke out at a pharmaceutical unit, Samarth Life Sciences at Manakpur in Baddi early this morning. No loss of life has been reported as the unit was not operational when the fire broke out.

The fire erupted from the ground floor where a short circuit occurred in the heater of a manufacturing tunnel. It spread to all three floors, informed SDM Baddi Vivek Mahajan who rushed to the spot to oversee fire-fighting operations.

“The last shift concluded at 2 am last night and the fire was noticed around 4 am by the maintenance staff. Efforts were initially made to douse the fire using the in-house fire extinguishers by the staff but later fire tenders were requisitioned as the blaze spread to all three floors,” added Mahajan.

Since the building was closed having glass panels on all sides it made the fire-fighting operations cumbersome. The fire staff had to break the glass panels to allow water in to extinguish the fire.

Vivek Mahajan informed, “Foam fire extinguishers were required to smother the flames.”

“The layout plan of the company was examined to find a safe entry point and strike at the areas which housed inflammable material to speedily douse the fire. This was done after an attempt to enter the unit by the fire staff from a vulnerable section of the building turned out to be risky,” informed Mahajan.

The fire department rushed to the spot to douse the blaze with eight fire tenders to deal with the exigency.

Santosh Sharma. Commandant, Home Guards, informed that the fire staff was on their toes after receiving a call at 4.05 pm and efforts were afoot to control the fire. Black plumes of smoke could be seen rising in the sky as the fire spread within no time due to the presence of inflammable material in the unit.

The fire was yet to be brought under control after intensive fire-fighting operations lasting several hours till evening. Though 90 per cent of the fire had been controlled it was yet to be extinguished fully. At least 24 fire men from Baddi and Nalagarh were on the spot and at least two fire tenders would be stationed there at night as a precaution, informed Sharma.