Hyderabad: A major fire in Ashoka Industries, a furniture godown at Puranapul on Wednesday afternoon, brought down the structure.
The godown, which usually has around 10 persons working on any day, had no workers at the time of the mishap, averting a tragedy.
It was found that the company owned by D.K. Jain was closed for over a week due to no work. However, foam material, wood, coir and material used for making sofa sets and paints and other combustible material, stored in the unit in large quantities, was gutted.
Inquiries revealed that the unit which has been functioning for over a decade in the middle of a densely populated locality and in a very narrow lane has no fire safety measures. The lane was so narrow that even fire tenders could not reach the unit and were forced to stop on the main road and fight the fire, using connecting pipes.
It took around four hours for seven fire tenders to completely douse the fire that broke at around 3 pm.
District Fire Officer Hyderabad M. Srinivas Reddy said the coir material dumped outside the unit could have caught fire and spread into the unit, bringing down the entire structure.
The unit is located in an area of around 80 yards. The structure is built on walls of over 20 feet and covered with tin sheets.
Due to the fire, thick smoke surrounded the area, triggering panic in the locality. “As this is not the first time there is a fire in the unit, we were not so afraid. But the way it spread and turned massive, we were afraid,” said Lakshmamma, a resident.
Due to the effect of the fire, the tin shed came down, making the fire fighting even more difficult.
Kulsumpura Inspector T. Ashok Kumar said that a case has been registered against the owner for not having any fire safety measures in place. Further probe is on to verify if the unit has the requisite permissions to run the unit.
