A thick clouds of smoke which continued to emanate from a well due to fire near the Neelambur bypass road from Friday evening disrupted the life of the residents of Pattanam, Pattanam Pudur and Vellalore till Tuesday night. “I could see it from about five km. away,” says M. Gokulraj (31), a resident of Pattanam Pudur.
On reaching the place between Pattanam and Vellalore junctions, he saw persons from the Cochin -Coimbatore - Karur Petroleum Product Pipeline at the spot as the fire was only a few feet away from the place where the pipeline was laid underground. After repeated calls to ‘101’ and ‘108’ a fire tender came from Peelamedu fire station and tried to bring the flames under control. Learning that the fire was fuelled by a heavy pile of rubber tyres dumped into the well over a period of time, they also used a chemical spray but it did not completely put off the flames.
However, the fire service personnel abandoned the effort. Smoke continued to emanate from the well till Tuesday evening.
A caller then informed the fire service department. But he received a call from the Peelamedu fire station, that the fire could not be put off by them using water and that the informer would have to call the local body to arrange for sand to douse the inflammables inside the well. But on Tuesday night the department personnel put off the fire.
Divisional Fire Officer S.R. Chandran said that their department personnel should put off all types of fire. “We don’t have sand stock. But, in case we need it to put off fire by covering the inflammable material to avoid contact with air, our personnel should coordinate with the local body or with public works department to get things done,” he said. He added that the department personnel will be advised to work on alternate modes and to avoid giving annoying replies to callers.
