AFTER GRUELLING efforts by eight fire tenders of three districts, the massive fire that broke out at Goodlass Nerolac factory in Jainpur industrial area under Akbarpur police station in Kanpur Dehat could be controlled in the wee hours today.
Meanwhile, some relatives of labourers working on contractual basis in the factory claimed that their wards had not reached home even 25 hours after the fire.
After inspecting the site, Additional SP Mahesh Mishra said, “It seems that there is no proper arrangement in the factory to extinguish fire and safety measures are poor.” He said a three-member panel comprising the SDM, the CO and the fire officer would probe the cause behind the fire. Mishra also said goods worth Rs 50-60 crore were destroyed. Over 200 employees came out from the factory around 2 am on Wednesday. Surprisingly, none of them was willing to share his experience with the media.
After some fervent requests some employees on condition of anonymity said that as they worked in a private company it would be better for them to remain reticent than comment anything about the incident when none of the senior officials wanted to make any official statement.
General Manager (Productions) SK Binda, who reached the site after the incident, told media persons it appeared that the reason behind the fire was a spark emanated from a machine kept near the chemicals in the factory. “An internal committee has been constituted to look into the reason behind the fire,” said Binda.
{{/usCountry}}General Manager (Productions) SK Binda, who reached the site after the incident, told media persons it appeared that the reason behind the fire was a spark emanated from a machine kept near the chemicals in the factory. “An internal committee has been constituted to look into the reason behind the fire,” said Binda.
{{/usCountry}}However, acting tough Additional SP Mahesh Mishra said there were no water in the factory to control the fire and water was arranged from other units like Pepsi and Bharat Petroleum.
Mishra also said that following yesterday’s incident fire control measures in other factories in Kanpur Dehat would be inspected. He also admitted that fire extinguishers in the factory were not working. However, as a safety measure a fire tender from Bhognipur was kept at the factory on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a source said that it could have been a ploy by the company as it had already dispatched large quantity of goods to other places on Tuesday itself and at the time of the incident not many manufactured paints were kept in the factory.