Blogs

Factory owner was reportedly sleeping on the fourth floor, when he noticed the smoke. He also sustained minor burns on his arms, while trying to douse the flames.

Some workers were also present inside the factory, when the fire broke out, but fortunately no one sustained any burn injuries. After noticing the fire, they started shifting the finished and raw goods to a safer place, but the fire engulfed the entire factory in no time and spread to all four floors. Expensive machinery and raw material including synthetic goods and finished goods reportedly was gutted in the incident.

Figure 1- Fire-fighters douse the flames at the hosiery unit in Jaswant Nagar, Ludhiana

Fire officials observed that the factory did not have the requisite fire-safety arrangement, due to which the factory men failed to douse the flames at an initial stage. Over two dozen fire tenders were used to douse the flames. During this incident, an LPG gas cylinder also exploded inside the factory, due to which it became difficult to tame the flames.

Assistant Divisional Fire Officer said the factory did not have necessary fire-safety arrangement and he was also sceptical of if it had obtained the NOC from Fire Department or not. This was really unfortunate and a case of sheer negligence. There was absence of crucial fire safety equipments and systems at the premises where highly explosive material like LPG cylinders and boilers were used. All this was happening in the industrial complex, which was an immediate neighbourhood of a residential area.

Similar incident happened in July 2018 when fire broke out at a hosiery unit in Kailash Nagar near Jodhewal Basti in the wee hours.  KKR International is a multi-storey factory and 13 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames. Short circuit is suspected to be the reason behind the fire. Fortunately, there was no casualty but the owner of the unit incurred a huge loss due to the incident.

According to the reports the Fire Department had not served a single notice to the industrial units in the recent past, where fire incidents were reported despite the fact that most of the industrial units were lacking fire-safety arrangement and many of them had not even obtained the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the department.

Some Fire officials, on the condition of anonymity stated that even if they serve notices on industrial units, no action could be taken against these without the implementation of the Fire Safety Act. They asserted that once the Punjab Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act comes to fore, which is hanging fire for a long time, only then can the Fire Department levy a penalty on defaulters.

Aarush fire system helps the industrial units to design a robust fire wall and helps them keep their belongings both human and material safe!!!