Puri: A major fire broke out at a soap factory in Mangalaghat of Puri City this noon reducing property worth lakhs of rupees to ashes. While the exact cause of the fire, reported at around 11.45 AM, is yet to be known, it is suspected that the blaze took place due to a short circuit.
On being informed, a team of Fire Services personnel reached the spot and later four more units of the firefighters were engaged as the intensity of the fire was massive. However, till the filing of this reports, they had brought the fire under control after hours of operation.
Sources said that the fire engulfed the entire factory as the raw materials like oil and plastics, which are inflammable substances, kept to make soap in the factory caught fire. The intensity of fire was so heavy that the asbestos, walls, etc. of the factory melted in the heat of the fire.
Brooms were also being manufactured at the same factory, added the sources.
Speaking about the fire mishaps, one of the fire fighters, said, “It was a huge challenge for us to douse the fire as a huge quantity of raw materials including two tons of oil to prepare soap caught fire. We used foams to suppress the fire. Later, we doused the fire that was seen in the heaps of raw materials used to make brooms. However, we managed to douse the fire.”
