Gurugram: Fire in manufacturing unit in Manesar; three firemen suffer minor burns, no other casualty reported

A major fire broke out at a manufacturing unit in Manesar’s Sector 8 Saturday evening. Three firemen suffered minor burn injuries while dousing the flames. No other

A major fire broke out at a manufacturing unit in Manesar’s Sector 8 Saturday evening. Three firemen suffered minor burn injuries while dousing the flames. No other casualties were reported.

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According to fire department officials, the call came at 6.08pm from the security guards of the company where the blaze took place. A total of nine fire tenders were used to douse the flames in nearly four hours.

Fire department officials identified the company as Vulcan Cold Forge Pvt Ltd, which manufactures nut bolts.

Assistant divisional fire safety officer IS Kashyap, said that due to the 21-day national lockdown, enforced by the Central government to combat the spread of Covid-19, the establishment was locked from the outside and no employees were present in the building, barring two guards.

“The fire broke out on the second floor of the building, the topmost floor. We had major difficulty in accessing the site of the fire and had to use a 42-metre hydraulic ladder to find our way inside. There was heavy chemical content due to which it took nearly four hours to douse the blaze,” said Kashyap.

Fire department officials said the topmost floor of the building was also gutted, where packaging items, along with chemicals, to clean nut bolts were stored. However, there was no damage to the first and ground floors of the building.

Kashyap said the electric panels of the building had been shut as no one was using the premises and it is highly unlikely that a short-circuit could have caused the blaze. He said that a high concentration of chemicals, used for ensuring nut bolts are rust-free, may have got mixed, resulting in a chemical reaction and causing a fire. However, work on finding out the exact cause of the fire is still underway.

A total of seven tenders of the Haryana fire services – from Manesar, Sector 37, Bhim Nagar, Udyog Vihar, and Sector 29 – were pressed into service, while two fire tenders each from Honda and Maruti was also sent

“The fire was intense; owners and guards of nearby factories also started panicking that the fire may spread to their establishment. We, fortunately, managed to control it within two hours. During the operation, the water which was being used by the firemen for dousing the fire, mixed with the chemicals resulting in the emission of chemical steam which led to three firemen suffering minor burn injuries,” said Kashyap.

He said the three firemen, one from Bhim Nagar and two from the Sector 29 fire brigade, suffered minor chemical burns in their skin and as a precautionary measure were taken to a private hospital in Sector 5.

Fire department officials said it is being verified whether the owners had procured a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire department. Kashyap, however, said all fire systems were found to be operational, prima-facie.

He added that one fire tender has been put on stand-by at the site as a precautionary measure, as chemical-related blaze can result in the emission of sparks later on.