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Hosiery factory gutted in Meharban, no casualty
‘FIVE-HOUR OP’ 12 fire tenders and 20 firefighters were pressed into service to control the blaze; team got info almost an hour after incident
Cloth material and machinery worth crores of rupees were gutted after a major fire broke out at a hosiery unit, Malhotra Fabrics, on Rahon Road in Meharban village on Monday morning. It took the firefighters nearly five hours to douse the flames.
Factory owner Akash Malhotra said he had received a call at 7am from families living in the neighbourhood, informing that smoke was billowing out of the factory. “Wasting no time, I intimated the fire department. Luckily, there was no one inside at the time,” he said.
He said that cloth material and machinery worth ₹6 crores were gutted in flames.
Malhotra suspects voltage fluctuation to be the reason behind the fire incident.
“Area residents had told me that voltage fluctuation was witnessed in the morning which may have resulted in a short-circuit. I don’t know what exactly happened but I have ended up losing everything,” said Malhotra.
As many as 12 fire tenders and 20 firefighters were pressed into service to control the blaze. “We reached the spot around 7.30am and it took us nearly five hours to douse the flames,” said Atish Rai, sub-fire officer.
He said that no casualty has been reported so far. “The factory owner has told us that he had locked the unit before leaving for home and there was no worker in the unit at the time of the incident. However, investigations are on to probe the reason behind the fire. We are not yet ruling out foul play or short-circuit,” said Rai.
He said that there were a few fire extinguishers kept in the factory unit but apparently none of it could be used.
Building develops cracks: Grim reminder of plastic factory fire
Rai said the entire operation was meticulously carried out to ensure that the safety of firefighters is not compromised with. While showing the cracks that appeared in the building, Rai said, “We could not afford to take a risk. Highly inflammable material was kept in the factory. So we decided to proceed cautiously with the operation,” said Rai.
He said that had the information been shared with the fire department on time, the loss could have been mitigated.
NO FIRE AUDIT SO FAR
It was in 2018 that a fire audit was announced by the then local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu in the city when a plastic factory near Suffiyan chowk has collapsed after a fire, killing 16 people died, including nine firefighters in November 2017.
But till now, no audit has been conducted in the city with thousands of factories and commercial units being run without fire safety NOC.
The fire audit commenced in the month of March 2018 but it was stopped around a month after it began.
