2 godowns, 6 shops gutted in major fire in Uruli Kanchan

Pune: A major fire gutted eight commercial establishments at Chaudhari vasti in Uruli Kanchan, near Pune around 1am on Friday.

A sari warehouse, a furniture godown, and six shops were destroyed in the blaze.

According to the fire brigade, preliminary inquires have revealed that the fire broke out in the sari warehouse. The clothes fuelled the fire and it soon enveloped the furniture godown. The fire soon spread to the other shops nearby. The cause behind the fire could not be ascertained till the time this report was filed.

Two gas cylinders stored in the godowns exploded because of the intense heat of fire. Three others cylinders were removed to safety from the establishments. No casualty was reported.

The central fire brigade's sub-divisional officer Pramod Sonawane said, "The blaze gutted the godowns and shops. We swung into action immediately after our control room received a call about the incident from the Loni Kalbhor police. However, we got the information around 3.30am. A fire tender from the nearby Hadapsar sub-station rushed to the spot and found that the fire was enormous. So another fire tender and two tankers were pressed into service."

He said, "We doused the fire, but our firemen sprayed water on the other godowns as well and shops to prevent them from getting enveloped in the massive fire. One of the godown owners who later reached the spot called five other tankers. They were also used in the fire-fighting operation."

"The godowns and shops had not adopted fire safety measures like installing fire extinguishers, which had led to to the spread of the blaze," he added.