Property worth nearly Rs 1.5 crore, mostly prime teak wood plus cutting machines at two units, were gutted in a major fire on Tuesday morning. The fire call was from the Timber Traders units at Chikhli Layout in Kalamna area. The Fire Brigade received the call around 1.20 am and sensing the sensitivity of matter, tenders from all nearby stations were diverted to the spot. As it happens with fire at timber yard, the spread occurs very fast and for fire-fighters the task on hand was quite challenging.

 

The fire tenders from Kalamna, Civil Lines, Sugat Nagar, Sakkardara, Wathoda, Lakadganj plus Cotton Market were on spot and team of firemen opened water hoses to halt the spread of fire. The flames first erupted at unit of Purshottam Patel who runs Rameshwar Timber Traders and it gutted the stock of timber wood. By the time fire-fighters reached the spot, the flames had already cover entire unit. Flames could seen billowing out from a large distance. Soon the flames devoured the wood cutting machine at Rameshwar’s firm. Even as water was being spread the flames had already spread to the adjoining unit of Kamal Timber Traders. Here too, the fire gutted entire stock of timber wood. The wood cutting machine was also destroyed in the flames. Fire-fighting team had to battled nearly four hours before they could quell the flames. Thereafter cooling operation required early morning to fully douse the flames. The owners pegged their losses at Rs 1.25 crore.