In a major fire mishap truck tyres worth over Rs 1.5 crore were gutted at a tyre godown located in zone no 11 in Birsanagar in Telco on Sunday.
The fire incident was so severe that as many as 15 fire tenders were pressed into service. Fire brigades were yet to douse the fire till the time of filing this report. Fire-brigades from Tata Steel, Tata Motors limited, Jharkhand Fire Service in Golmuri and Sonari aerodrum rushed to the spot as the news spread.
When the incident took place there were several truck loads of brand new tyres that were meant for being supplied to automobile major Tata Motors. When contacted Krishna Bharti, the owner of the godown said that he is in a state of shock and don’t know what led to the mishap however he suspected the mishap could have been due to short circuit. “I could not record the collect figures but the loss would be in crores,” he further noted.
According to sources, there was facility of fire-extinguisher inside the godown, but today being Sunday the godown was closed and unfortunately the fire-extinguishers could not be used. One of the eyewitnesses informed that though fire-brigade of Government fire service was informed, but the first fire-tender arrived at the spot a late after the fire had broke up. By the time more fire-tenders arrived, the property was completely gutted.
"The site was horrifying as the flames flashed across the sky. Though as the news spread they swung into action and started dousing the fire by resorting to the pouring water in the place. But the intensity of the fire was so high that before they could understand anything, the fire continued to engulf one tyre after another," said Suresh Prasad, an eye witness.
When contacted, sub-inspector Sambhu Ram of the Birsanagar police station said that the exact loss caused by the fire could not be ascertained yet, but the loss is well over Rs 1.5 crore. "It is too early to comment but as per the initial investigation it appears that the fire was caused by short circuit. Fire tenders, including foam tenders were pressed into service, but the fire-brigades have not been able to douse the flame even carrying out three-hour-long fire-fighting," said Ram.