Yet another fire breakout at waste plant, authorities clueless

Fire spreads to a large area; PCB experts monitoring air quality at Brahmapuram

Mystery grows: Fire and Rescue Services personnel trying to douse the fire that broke out at the Brahmapuram solid waste treatment plant in Kochi on Tuesday.

Yet another fire broke out at the waste dumping yard of the Kochi Corporation at Brahmapuram on Tuesday evening even as the reasons for the earlier fires remain mysterious.

The fire that started at the small patches of waste in the afternoon spread over a large area as the day progressed. Smoke billowing from the waste enveloped the sky over the area, raising health concerns. The civic authorities said they had been taking extra care since December to prevent fire accidents at the site. Powerful motors were being used to pump water over the garbage heaps to keep them wet. The plastic waste had caught fire during the last summer too, putting the civic authorities in a tight spot.

The local body had earlier made pathways through the waste heaps for firetenders to reach various points of the yard as the inaccessibility of the area had posed serious challenges to firefighters.

Meanwhile, Mayor Soumini Jain, who visited the site, said the fire was brought under control in a few hours after the blaze. The reasons for the fire outbreak was unknown. The waste might have caught fire as the atmospheric temperature had gone up significantly during the day hours, Ms. Jain said.

A tough task

As the outbreak of the fire was reported, the staff deployed there alerted Fire and Rescue Services officials, who sprung into action. The waste has been spread over a vast area outside the gate of the yard. As the efforts to douse the blaze continued, fresh fire broke out in other places, making firefighting a tough task, said Ms. Jain.

A communication issued by the Ernakulam district administration said efforts were being taken to control the fire. Water was being pumped from Kadamprayar, which flows next to the plant site, on waste. Fire and Rescue Services personnel from various city units and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited were engaged in the rescue operations. The area was lit up to continue the drive during the night hours, said the communication.

The administration had also asked the civic body to deploy officials from health and engineering wings to augment fire controlling measures. “A team of environmental experts from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board will monitor the air quality in the region following the fire,” the communication said.

Incidentally, the police investigation into the reasons of earlier fires has not made any headway. “The police took my statement once. Nothing was heard of the probe since then,” said Ms. Jain.

The Kochi Corporation council decided to approach the police after allegations of some miscreants setting the waste heaps on fire surfaced. No clues could be obtained into the reasons of fire as the CCTV visuals from the yard were missing. The hard disk of the CCTV cameras were found tampered with, raising the suspicion that the garbage heaps were set on fire, Ms. Jain said.