Over 5,000 gunny bags of rice were burnt to ashes in the Andhra Pradesh State Warehousing Corporation (APSWC) godown at Pedda Karagraharam village near Machilipatnam on Wednesday.
The loss has been estimated at ₹40 lakh. Electric short-circuit is suspected to be the cause for the fire. All the gutted rice belonged to the Civil Supplies Department.
The APSWC staff, who came to work in the morning, noticed smoke emanating from the godown and alerted the fire department, who swung into action and rushed two fire tenders, which brought the flames under control after a two-hour operation.
“Over 5,000 gunny bags of rice have been gutted owing to suspected short circuit in the block 2, in which above 38,000 bags of rice belonging to the Civil Supplies Department are stored,” APSWC Godown Manager Chandra Sekhar told The Hindu.
There was about 40,000 tonnes of rice in the godown on Wednesday and all the stock belonged to the Civil Supplies Department and Food Corporation of India.
The rice bags gutted were recently procured as levy from rice millers for distribution to the PDS beneficiaries.
“The rice stock that caught the fire was covered under the polythene covers for fumigation. The Civil Supplies department’s quality control team has launched an investigation,” added Mr. Sekhar.