Major fire engulfs cattle feed plant

A major fire broke out at a cattle feed manufacturing facility situated on Bahadur Ke Road on Friday morning. Since the factory was not having any fire safety arrangements, employees failed to douse the flames at the initial stage and the same took the shape of an inferno in no time.

The reason behind the fire could not be ascertained. Fire officials suspect a short-circuit could be the possible cause.

The unit deals in producing cattle feed by using cotton seed. Consequently, vast quantities of the raw highly flammable material were stockpiled at the factory.

Firemen had to struggle for six hours to completely douse the flames.

According to fire officials, the initial strategy focused on exterior containment before teams could safely breach building blocks and extinguish internal hotspots.

As per information around 10 am, smoke began to emanate from an unknown area of the unit. Before anyone could react, the fire exploded, spreading instantly. Employees quickly raised the alarm and escaped from the scene, seeking safety among nearby places before informing the Fire Department around 10:14 am. In a few minutes, the firefighters reached the scene and started the operation.

Rajinder Kumar, a leading fireman, said when they reached the place, the flames were everywhere but thankfully, they located a viable water source within 500 m. Without that, they would have been forced to shuttle back and forth from as far as Chand Cinema or the Central Fire Station. About 50 fire tenders were used to douse the flames and the personnel left the place around 4:30 pm.

Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Jaswinder Singh, when asked if the factory had any safety arrangements, said the unit appeared to have minimal fire safety measures in place. Had there been adequate arrangements, the owner or workers could likely to have contained the fire in its initial stage. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the incident.

Meanwhile, the factory owner refused to comment on total losses suffered by him due to the blaze.