25 crore worth stock gutted in cold storage in Mahabubabad

Mahabubabad: Smoke continues to billow from a cold storage unit late on Wednesday night despite five fire tenders were pressed into service. A fire broke out on the fourth floor of the Kanaka Durga cold storage unit near Anantaram on Yellandu road, one kilometre from Mahabubabad town, at around noon.

According to preliminary reports, stocks of red gram, chilli, green gram etc whose worth is said to be around Rs 25 crore were destroyed in the fire.It is learnt that the cold storage unit which caught fire due to short circuit has a capacity of storing 1.50 lakh bags.

The number of bags in the unit was about 1.20 lakh. Even though the fire tenders were pressed into service from Yellandu, Narsampet and Warangal in addition to the one available in Mahabubabad, the authorities failed to control fire. Of the four, two blocks – A and B – were totally gutted in the fire. The authorities were able to shift the stocks stored in other two blocks to safe location.

District Collector Ch Shivalingaiah, who took stock of the situation, summoned two more fire tenders from Hyderabad. The Collector said there was no report of casualties. Meanwhile, farmers who stored their produce are worried lot. A farmer demanded that the government provide compensation on a par with the highest price of the season. It is learnt that 400 bags of mirchi belonging to Dornakal MLA D S Redya Naik was also stored in the cold storage unit.