Smoke clouds Tajpur road as dyeing unit goes up in flames

Ludhiana: Thick black smoke covered the skyline near Tajpur Road when a dyeing unit erupted into flames on Thursday evening.
It proved difficult for the firemen to enter the factory as fire and smoke had blocked one of the entrances and there was a boiler unit on the other side.
A short circuit might have caused fire, officials suspected. The flames were put off completely almost after three hours.
The fire officials received the call around 4.20pm about this incident. Area residents claimed it was around 4pm when they noticed smoke in the building. At the backside of the unit, they had to break the wall and create holes so that smoke and heat could come out.
Fire station officer Maninder Singh said, "Fire tenders made 25 rounds for refill during the incident. There was thick smoke inside the unit and once the situation got normal, we went inside and checked. The exact reason behind the fire will also become clear once we check the unit.”
Irregularities galore
There were irregularities in the building where hardly any fire safety arrangement was visible.
Fire officials also questioned gradual clubbing of adjoining plots to increase the land area.
A senior fire official claimed that there was no safety arrangement inside and they were refilling their fire tenders from Sunder Nagar fire station as no other source was available nearby. The unit was located on the bank of Buddha Nullah.
Mob of onlookers
As Tajpur road remained crowded most of the time, the cops had a tough time controlling the crowd. The workers from the nearby units gathered there in large numbers.
The cops had blocked the main Tajpur Road as well so in order to check traffic movement. People from colonies located on the other side of the Buddha Nullah also reached the spot to witness the firefighting exercise.