AP & Telangana State Head – Anandam Dundi :
Hyderabad: A massive fire broke out at the Gubba Pharma Cold Storage in Annaram village in Telangana’s Sangareddy district on Wednesday, said officials, while adding that the blaze has been brought under control.
The fire broke out at 9 pm at the cold storage unit, gutting a major portion of the facility. Around 300 tons of chemicals were inside the storage unit, which triggered a series of explosions, triggering panic among the locals and the authorities.
In a statement, Sangareddy District Fire Officer Nageshwar Rao said that the explosions continued for nearly 2 hours because of the chemicals inside the cold storage unit.
At the time of the incident, 20 workers and security personnel were present inside the facility, but none of them were injured in the incident. Later, five fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire.
The district administration also ordered the evacuation of people from nearby areas to avoid any untoward incident.
In June this year, 46 people lost their lives following an explosion at Sigachi Industries Ltd’s pharma plant in Pashamylaram in the Sangareddy district. The incident had occurred on June 30. At the time of the incident, 143 people were inside the facility. Out of them, 61 had managed to escape.
Eight others were also missing following the incident. Later, the administration said that they will be declared dead if no clues are found.