Fire at 3 places: Crop, leather stock gutted

Kanpur: Three incidents of fire were reported from across the district on Monday.
In the first incident, leather stock was gutted in fire at a tannery in Jajmau on Monday afternoon.

"The upper storey of the tannery, where raw leather stock was dumped, went up in flames following a short circuit. Thankfully the flames didn't reach the nearby store where huge quantity of chemical was dumped," a fire officer told TOI. Three fire tenders were sent to the area to douse the fire from spreading in the neighbouring units. It took nearly an hour to douse it, he added.

In another incident, the standing wheat crop was gutted in Udaipur village in Sachendi area of the district. The crop sown in over 1000 bigha of land was destroyed by the time the fire could be extinguished. The villagers thereafter created ruckus and misbehaved with the firemen accusing them of reaching late at the mishap site.

They were however pacified after senior district and police officials assured them of recommending their demand of immediate release of monetary help to the senior officials.

SP (Rural) Pradyumna Singh and SDM (Sadar) Amit Rathore reached the village along with the staff. Police, villagers and fire brigade personnel with the help of six fire tenders somehow brought the fire under control, but by that time, the crop sown over a large area had been gutted. "We will make recommendations to the concerned officials regarding release of monetary compensation to the victims of the fire mishap," the SP said.

According to villagers the wheat crop, sown over 1000 bighas of agricultural land, which was ready for harvesting, was destroyed in the fire.

The third incident of fire was reported from Anwarganj area of the city.