Goods, machinery worth lakhs destroyed in fire at garment unit in Ludhiana

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 1

A major fire broke out at JP Knit, a garment manufacturing unit situated on Bahadur Ke Road, in the early morning on Wednesday. Goods and machinery worth lakhs and a three-storey building of the unit was gutted in the fire. Fortunately, as the factory was closed no loss of life or injuries were reported in the incident.

Although fire tenders reached the spot on time, firemen faced difficulty in controlling the blaze due to thick smoke. Fire tenders also faced difficulties in reaching the spot, as the factory was located in narrow lanes.

As per the available information, fire broke out at around 4.40 am in the morning and was noticed by the security guard of the adjoining factory. The guard himself called the fire brigade control room following which fire tenders reached the spot.

However, narrow lanes prevented fire tenders from reaching the manufacturing unit. Fire tenders were parked at a distance from the factory from where a pipeline was layed to douse the flames. More than 140 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames.

A fire official said they could not easily start rescue operations as the unit was located in a narrow lane. As there was no arrangements of water, fire tenders had to return to station to refill.

Fire officials said it took more than six hours took to completely douse the flames. The three-storey building of the unit was completely gutted, they added. Short circuit could be the reason of fire, but exact cause could be known only after further investigation, they added.

Fire station officer SN Sharma said firemen took hours to completely douse the flames as the factory had huge stock of raw material and other finished products on premises.

The factory had all safety arrangements and adequate fire extinguishers were also installed, but these could not be used as the blaze spread in the entire unit within minutes.

Meanwhile, another fire incident was reported at a plywood factory situated in Guru Nanak Colony on the Chandigarh road. It was a minor incident and controlled within half an hour.

The youth Akali Dal president, Gurdeep Gosha, also reached the spot and served langar to firemen.

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