Bhopal: Raw material and machines of over Rs 100 crore were gutted in the massive fire, which broke out at centre-owned New Bhopal Textile Mills on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. Short circuit caused the fire in the textile mills located near Bhopal railway station.
State minister Vishwas Sarang who reached the spot said that he has written a letter to union textile minister Smriti Irani for ensuring a fair probe into the incident so that contractual workers working in the Mills don’t lose employment. Over 50 fire tenders including those called from Mandideep and Sehore battled for over 10 hours to control the flames. However, it was not fully controlled till filing of this report. Army personnel were also seen controlling the blaze.
According to the workers in New Bhopal textile mills, the fire started at around 2 am when the mill workers were still working inside. They tried to douse the fire but the fire extinguishers did not work. They tried other means to extinguish the fire but failed.
As the blaze intensified, the workers ran to safety and called Bhopal Municipal Corporation to send fire tenders. Vinod Riccharia, general secretary of Kapda Mill Workers Federation, said safety equipments at the Mills were not put to test since 2013.
“This always posed a threat to workers and officials working inside. Fire fighting system including the pump attached to the water container in the unit is ineffective, which should have been tested at regular intervals,” he said and added that the management could have controlled the fire at initial stage had the fire extinguishers been in working condition.
