Ludhiana: The flames coming out of a house in Punjabi Bagh at Tibba Road pressed panic alarm among all the area residents on Wednesday morning. A large quantity of hosiery waste was stored at the ground floor of the house while at the first floor the family was residing. The family members came out in time and informed the fire officials to control the fire. The area is sitting on a ticking bomb wherein almost every house stores hosiery waste and in the past also several fire incidents were reported in these areas, causing major loss.The fire officials and area residents had heated arguments as area residents rued that firemen were taking a long time to control the fire. On the other hand, the fire officials blamed encroachment on the road by area residents by storing huge bags of this hosiery waste, creating hurdles in reaching the venue. The firemen could not reach the house and they had to use a 700 to 800-foot-long hose pipe to control the fire. The flames were visible from the entrance gate and firemen had to struggle hard in dousing the flames because the stock was touching the roof of rooms at the ground floor and it was quite challenging to control the fire. Meanwhile, leading fireman Rajinder Kumar shared, “The fire call was received at 11 am and at around 1.40 pm the fire tenders came back and we used at least six fire tenders. There was some issue between the area residents and one of the drivers of the fire engine but we managed to convince people that delay was due to encroachments and some technical snag in one fire tender.” He said they controlled the situation in almost one hour and for the rest of the time they were at the site as a precaution. The fire incident has once again highlighted the careless attitude of residents who store hosiery waste and even scrap without ensuring preventive measures. Despite several fire incidents in the past as well, the residents do not mend their ways and store the material in the open and with a small spark it gets converted into a major fire incident. The fire officials claimed that it was unsafe to store these things in open plots or even outside the houses but nobody bothers. The residents in areas like Maya Puri, Gulabi Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, Shakti Nagar, Tibba Road, Haibowal, Chander Nagar etc are sitting on a tickling bomb. Some of the areas are narrow and it is difficult for the fire brigade to reach there. The situation is such that people have even encroached on the road portion and also the entrance of the house is blocked by putting big bags full of waste material. MSID:: 129950932 413 |
