Pulwama, Dec 22: At least 400 fruit crates were damaged in a fire incident on Sunday at Lassipora industrial centre in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Officials said that the incident occurred at Panchal Agro Fresh, a Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage unit at Lassipora.
Moin ul Islam, Assistant Director of Fire and Emergency Services Pulwama said that the fire erupted in the backyard of the storage facility, where approximately 7,000 plastic crates used for fruit storage and transportation were stored.
“The fire response team stationed in Lassipora acted swiftly to douse the flames. However, by the time, the fire was brought under control, around 300 to 400 crates were completely destroyed,” he said.
He said that the fire also caused heat damage to two chambers of the cold storage unit located adjacent to the affected area. Islam said that the exact cause of the fire is yet to be determined and will be ascertained following a detailed investigation.
An employee of Panchal Agro Fresh described the incident as abrupt and alarming. “The fire started suddenly in the backyard and we were alerted by the plant operator. It spread quickly, causing significant damage to the plastic crates,” he said, adding that many crates were devoured in the blaze. This was the third fire incident in Pulwama in the past five days.
On December 18, a receiving station and workshop of KPDCL were damaged in fire and next day and a fire incident was reported at court complex Pulwama which caused damages to a section used by stamp vendors and petition writers.
