Property worth crores of rupees is suspected to have been destroyed before the fire was extinguished
Bhubaneswar: A major fire broke out at Lingaraj Biscuits Private Limited, a biscuit factory at Chandaka Industrial Estate under Infocity police limits here in the wee hours of Monday.
Although, no loss of life was reported, assets and biscuits worth crores of rupees were reduced to cinders. The intensity of the inferno was so massive that 30 fire fighting vehicles took over 20 hours to douse the flames.
Sources said the fire broke out at around 3am. The security guard of the factory saw smoke billowing from the warehouse which later engulfed to other departments and alerted the factory owner, who informed the Chandrasekharpur fire officials.
Despite frantic efforts, Chandrasekharpur fire officials failed to contain the flames. However, later fire brigades from Kalpana, Balianta, CRP, and those stationed at the Kalinga Stadium and state Secretariat rushed the spot and managed to contain the blaze. A 40-member team of National Disaster Response Force and Infocity police were also deployed to assist the fire officials, sources said.
Although the exact figure of loss is yet to be ascertained, factory owner KK Agrawal claimed biscuits and raw materials worth over Rs 50 crore were reduced to ashes. “There was more than 300 to 400 tonne of biscuits and huge quantity of raw materials including cartoons, packaging materials, ghee, and edible in the godown” Agrawal said.
Deputy fire officer Ramesh Chandra Nayak suspected that an electric short-circuit might have caused the mishap. “Huge quantity of biscuits and raw materials like wheat flour and ghee stored in the godown might have caught fire due to electric sparks.” Nayak said.
According to sources the directorate of Factories and Boilers had registered a case against the factory in December 2016 after it found the establishment of operating in violation of fire safety norms.
“The case is under consideration by the sub-divisional judicial magistrate court. We have directed the factory owner to close down the unit until directives from the department,” deputy director of Factories and Boilers Malay Kumar Pradhan told this newspaper.
“Since, it was a Sunday, the factory was closed. At least 500 people work here,” said a factory employee.
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