Massive fire in Ballarpur wood, bamboo depot

Chandrapur: A massive fire broke out in Nilgiri wood depot of Ballarpur Paper Mill at Kalmana, destroying nearly 30,000 tonnes of nilgiri wood along with stock of two bamboo depots, a private petrol pump, and office of a highway construction company. The blaze started at around 3pm, spread over 20 acres, and continued to rage till the filing of this report at midnight, even as over 12 fire brigades from half a dozen locations were deployed to contain it.
The fire poses a threat to adjacent forest under Ballarpur range and also a wood depot of the forest department, along with Kalmana village. The inferno has burned the 11 kv power supply line passing through the depot, plunging over a dozen villages into darkness. The administration stopped traffic along Ballarpur-Sironcha National Highway at 6pm to avoid any human casualties.
The staff of Hindustan Petroleum Petrol Pump owned by Mahendra Fulzele, and the office of Balaji Infratech Ltd too fled with documents and vehicles before both establishments were engulfed by the blaze. No human casualty has been reported so far. Senior officials from the administration, forest department, police and Ballarpur Paper Mills were at the spot, while fire tenders tried to contain the fire.
BILT Graphic Paper Product Ltd (Ballarpur Paper Mill) has a depot of nilgiri and bamboo stock along the National Highway close village Kalmana, some 11km from Ballarpur. The fire was first seen at around 3pm at a pile of nilgiri in the depot. The blaze soon covered the adjacent nilgiri and bamboo depots of paper mill. The sarpanch of Kalmana and staffers of depot reported the matter to authorities. A dozen fire engines from paper mill, Ballarpur and Rajura municipal councils, Chandrapur municipal corporation, Ultratech and Ambuja Cement companies were rushed to the spot.
“Fortunately there was no fuel stock in the petrol pump, and hence a major accident was averted. No casualty has been reported so far,” said Ballarpur tehsildar Sanjay Rainchwar. He said there is currently no plan to evacuate Kalmana village. The highway has been closed for traffic as the fire is spreading along the road.
The forest department had deployed a posse of around 200 men in their wood depot close to the burning inferno. “Our wood depot having timber worth over Rs10 crores is just 100 yards from the inferno. We have doused with water the entire stock and the road between the blaze and our depot. We are ready to contain the fire, if its spreads to our side,” said RFO Ballarpur Santosh Thipe.
He denied reports the fire started from forest leaves being burned by foresters along the road. He said that such clearing of vegetation along roads with fire, and preparation of fire line in forest is done in January and February, before the onset of summer. He admitted the threat of fire spreading to the adjacent forest, but maintained they are ready to fight the fire.
A massive crowd of people from nearby villagers and Ballarpur city rushed to spot to watch the blazing inferno. Police from Ballarpur and Kothari police stations, with additional staff from district headquarter, were deployed to control the crowd. Many kilometer-long queue of vehicles was seen on both sides of the inferno after closure of the highway.