Indore’s waste plant gutted by fire, no loss of life reported

A waste disposal plant in Madhya Pradesh was completely burnt down when its machinery caught fire on Sunday afternoon.

A waste disposal plant in Madhya Pradesh was completely burnt down when its machinery caught fire on Sunday afternoon.

No loss of life, however, has been reported so far, the plant officials said.

The plant, run by a Gurgaon-based firm A-Z, is located at Devguradia, about 10 kilometres from the heart of Indore. The incident has completely shut down the plant operation for now, the officials said.

Waste management consultant Asad Warsi said the fire started in the machines while the garbage was being processed in the plant.

Inflammable gases, like methane are released during an aerobic digestion of the waste. Such gases easily catch fire when the atmospheric temperature is high, he said.

On Sunday, the fire caught the machinery inside and burnt down the entire plant, causing an estimated loss of Rs 10 to Rs 12 crore, he said, adding it took two hours to control the fire.

"A lot of inflammable things are found in the trash dumped there. It could have led to a large scale disaster," said another IMC official.

Two weeks ago a similar incident had taken place at the same place. But, the fire was doused before it could reach the machinery at that time.