PrashantNews
A factory owner and his employee were burnt alive and another was injured in a chemical plant fire in Bahadarabad area of Haridwar district in Uttarakhand on Sunday night.
The factory owner identified as Mahesh Agarwal and employee Sanjay Kumar died due to serious burn injuries.
The fire began at Ganpati Chemical Factory located in Ibrahimpur village at around 9 pm on Sunday night, which could be doused only after 12 hours long struggle by the fire-brigade personnel, police said.
Eyewitnesses said that the fire was so horrific that the smoke could be seen from several kilometers away. The information about the fire was immediately given to the fire-brigade officials but the fire tenders took time to reach the spot.
In the meantime, the villagers tried to control the fire with buckets and tankers. But due to the chemicals present in the factory, the fire spread at a faster speed. Within one-two hours the whole factory was gutted.
Seeing the severity of the fire, several fire brigade vehicles were sent to control it throughout the night but the blaze was controlled in the Monday morning after hours-long struggle.
Haridwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Parmendra Dobal, who visited the area, said the fire started in tankers filled with chemicals parked in the factory premises, which soon spread to the entire plant.