Fire erupted in the Defence Electronic Application laboratory, a factory under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, in Raipur, Dehradun on Sunday. The fire was extinguished after around four hours’ struggle with the flames by around 40 firemen.
Defense equipment amounting to crores was reportedly reduced to ashes in the blaze. However, no casualty was reported. The factory was closed on Friday. This is the reason why no scientist was present in the laboratory when the fire broke out, said Dehradun Fire Station Officer Shiv Prasad Mamgai on Monday.
The cause of fire is yet to be ascertained though the department of defense constituted a committee to inquire into the cause of the flame, he added. Mamgai said that his office was informed about the fire at 7.20 am on Sunday. Soon, two fire tenders were sent to the incident site.
later, two additional fire tenders were also sent in about half an hour. Initially, police faced difficulties as the entire area was filled with smoke. A total of six fire tenders, including two from defense department (factory), were pressed into use to bring the flame under control at the earliest.
The fire in DEAl destroyed defense equipments worth crores. The damage is yet to be estimated though. Fire safety equipments were available in the factory. However, these were not enough to put out the fire. “Around four adjacent rooms of the factory’s laboratory were affected by the fire. We controlled the flames before it took a more grim turn,” he added.