Nagpur: A
cold storage with huge stock of 13,500 gunny bags of red chilli caught fire at Gumthala on Bhandara national highway, around 15km from here, early morning on Saturday. According to a fire official, the cold storage does not have any fire safety measures.
Additional chief fire officer BP Chandankhede told TOI that fire cannot be doused now as it will cause serious problem for motorists using the national highway and also villages nearby.
“There is huge stock of red chilli in Adinath cold storage where the fire broke out. It is just 100 feet from the national highway. No smoke is coming out of the cold storage. We will have to break the walls to douse the fire. But then the smoke of red chilli will spread in around 1km area. We will have to wait for a couple of days for the chillies to turn into ashes. It will take around 10 days to bring the fire under control,” he said.
It is learnt, the cold storage belongs to the same person who owns Afzal cold storage that had caught fire and collapsed completely in February.
According to Chandankhede, the 200x100 feet Adinath cold storage also has huge quantity of foodgrains like wheat, pulses, corn etc. “The cold storage does not have any fire escape staircase or systems. We had issued notice to disconnect power and water connections of the cold storage last year. The fire will make the structure weak, so it will have to be demolished,” he said.
Activist Kamlesh Shah, who has been complaining about violations in cold storages since 2012, said stringent action should be taken against the officials of fire department, Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA) and the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. “I had given information about all the cold storages but no action was taken. Around 60,000 quintal foodgrains were reduced to ashes in Afzal cold storage fire. Now, hundreds of foodgrains will be destroyed. It is a public loss,” he said.
This is the fourth incident of fire in last one week. Earlier, fire had broken out in three commercial complexes in the city.