GUWAHATI: A huge fire broke out at a factory in the Sonapur area along the Assam-Meghalaya border in the early hours of Friday, leading to panic among the local residents.
The area is located in the outskirts of Guwahati city.
Reportedly, fire personnel of a total of ten fire tenders were putting in their best efforts to douse the flames, although impaired by a lack of fire-fighting facilities.
The inferno is said to have taken place at Ascent Bamboo Industry, a manufacturer of incense sticks and ice-cream sticks.
On getting information about the fire incident, ten fire tenders from Assam and Meghalaya were rushed to the spot to douse the blaze and were reportedly still busy in their efforts to put out the fire, at the time of the report.
However, the fire brigade officials pointed out that a fire-fighting system was not provided at the industry and a No Objection Certificate (NOC) was not issued for the factory.
These facts were confirmed by a police official who was present at the scene. He said, “After reaching the spot, I tried to check if there is any fire-fighting system but so far I couldn’t find any such system installed in this factory. Also, whenever a factory is opened, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) is required which after inquiry I found they do not possess.”
Due to the lack of fire-fighting facilities in the factory, the team had to borrow water local sources and it was expected to take hours to douse the fire, the official further informed.
Earlier, on Monday night, a major fire broke out in Assam’s Baihata Chariali in which several business establishments were burnt to ashes. As per initial reports, the fire broke out a chowk bazaar in Bezera village last night.
As many as seven shops in the area were reportedly engulfed by the flames
Witnesses at the spot said the fire is suspected to have either broken out at a yarn shop or a stationary shop in the locality. It soon spread to nearby shops, they said.
Reportedly, damages to property worth lakhs were caused by the fire. Several fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot in order to douse the flames.
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