Screengrab from a video of the fire at Sonipat factory. A major fire broke out on Sunday at a chemical factory in Kundli industrial area of Haryana’s Sonipat district and more than 20 workers were evacuated and the situation brought under control, a top official said.
Nearly 20 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, which have now subsided and the fire should be brought fully under control by late in the night, Sonipat Deputy Commissioner Lalit Siwach said over the phone.
Fire tenders from Kundli and nearby areas, including Narela in Delhi, Haryana’s Rohtak, Bahadurgarh, Sonipat, Samalkha and Panipat were summoned to douse the flames, he said. “The factory is related to making peppermint oil and ancillary chemicals, all of which are used in making toothpaste,” he said. Siwach said more than 20 people were working in the factory at the time of the incident, “but all were evacuated in time”.
Meanwhile, the Sonipat district administration faced the problem that a GAIL gas pipeline ran nearby and high temperatures caused by the burning chemicals could have resulted in a mishap, but timely action prevented any untoward incident from happening.
Earlier, a police official from Kundli, Sonipat had said about 50 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, but the DC said many were kept on standby mode just in case the fire would have spread to other units in the vicinity of the chemical factory.
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