In a major fire accident, property worth over Rs 10 crore of the Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Ltd (APBCL), near Somuladoddi village, just five km away from Anantapur town was gutted.
The fire, which started close to midnight, raged for over two hours, even as the fire fighters arrived at the spot within an hour of the accident being reported and tried to douse it. Electric short circuit is suspected to have caused the fire.
Preliminary estimated put the loss due to the fire at over Rs 5 crore besides other property relating to distribution and storage of liquor worth an equal amount.
Firefighters struggled to control the fire as liquor constantly spurred on the fire and glass bottles were exploding.
While there has been no loss of life of injuries, the fire kept the residents of the village on their tenterhooks. “We were afraid that there might be an explosion as the godown stored tonnes of liquor bottles. We stayed awake until almost 4 a.m. just to be ready to move out in case of any danger,” Narasimha Reddy of the Somuladoddi village, told The Hindu .
Anantapur Collector Kona Sasidhar visited the site.
There was
no loss of life,
but shocked
residents went without sleep
