Industrial ash caused Mysuru fire?

Mysuru: Strengthening the suspicion that dumping of industrial waste could be responsible for the burning hot soil, letting off smoke and fire on a plot of land near Sadanahalli in Naganahalli gram panchayat, the deputy director of the department of factories, boilers, industrial safety and health, DC Jagadeesh, has found ash deposits on it.

In an interim report on the phenomenon, which has claimed the life of a teenage boy and injured two others, he says spontaneous combustion of carbon and coal fines found in the ash deposits is causing the soil to let off  fumes and fire.

Noting that there are a few industries  generating ash from boilers in the area, he has suggested a review of their disposal methodology to see if they have been permitted to fill the land with  ash or whether they have been  using it as an illegal dump.  

The ash deposits seem to be in  a valley with an inclined terrain, 60 feet from the road and not easily accessible.

The report says burnt chemical bottle lids and mangled plastic bottles  were also found strewn at the site and some of the scattered shrubs were burnt .   The land does not appear to have been cultivated, according to it. Barring the section filled with heaps of sand  which is smoking hot, the rest of it appears normal, going by the report.

Going by Mysuru deputy commissioner D Randeep,  the final report could be submitted  next week. A teenager died of burns after he and a friend  happened to attend to nature’s call on the land some weeks ago, sparking off interest in the phenomenon.