Fire damages factory in Rania area

KANPUR: Fire broke out in a 'kattha' factory in Rania area near Kundan village of the district on Saturday. No loss of life has been reported.
Thick smoke followed by huge flames left the locals panicky. The intensity of fire was such that people from far off areas could see it raging in the sky and hundreds of them gathered outside the factory. Several fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire.It took more than two hours to extinguish the fire.
The gravity of the fire can be gauged from the fact that a ceiling of the store room of the kattha factory and a major dump of scrap adjacent to it were gutted.
The incident was reported to take place in the morning. People living in the vicinity after coming across huge flames alerted the fire department.
Worried that fire may engulf the nearby units, many security personnel started shifting combustible material to safer place.
Reports said that fire in the scrap dump close to the store room made the task of the firemen more difficult.
Senior Fire officer told TOI that the exact cause of fire was yet to be ascertained. He did not rule out short-circuit as a case. Nothing was visible due to dense smoke and damage was being calculated.
"Fortunately, there were very few persons present inside the factory when the fire broke out. All of them rescued timely. We are now trying to figure out how the factory had caught fire," he added.