The fire and emergency services personnel, along with fire tenders from New Mangalore Port Trust) and MPRL (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (NMPT) battled for over seven hours until 3.30 am on Monday to contain the massive blaze at the Mangaluru City Corporation’s (MCC) plastic dry waste baling unit in the dumping yard in Pacchanady.
The fire that was noticed in the unit at around 8.30 pm soon spread engulfing the dry waste and storage units. Fire tenders succeeded in preventing the fire from spreading in the neighbourhood. The total loss is expected to run into lakhs as a major part of the shed and machinery were completely gutted in the fire.
City Corporation Commissioner Akshy Sridhar told DH, “It is suspected that a short circuit caused the fire. But the investigation is on. Precautionary measures were taken immediately to check the spread of fire. There were 200 tonnes of dry waste at the unit when the fire broke out.”
The unit was outsourced to a private firm and was run by Nature-Friendly Recycle Industries and Dry Waste Handling.
Aris Mohammed of the private firm said they were segregating waste at the unit and segregated waste was taken to their plant in Baikampady for processing. The bailed plastic PET bottles were shipped to the Netherlands in the past. The yard receives an average of 330 tonnes of garbage (both wet and dry waste) per day from MCC, Ullal CMC, Mulki and Bantwal, he said.
“A machine, worth Rs 65 lakh, was destroyed in the fire mishap along with other materials. A major mishap was averted as no labourers were at the spot, as Sunday is a holiday,” he said.
Due to the massive fire, the residents in Pacchanady, Mangalanagara and Santhoshnagara were forced to endure foul odour.
A haze of smoke enveloped the entire area, forcing residents to close all windows, doors and remain indoors. Due to a heavy breeze, the smoke quickly had spread to nearby areas. Every year, the fire at the landfill site of the dumping yard in Pacchanady during summer has been causing many inconveniences to people residing in the surrounding areas.
According to residents whenever there is any fire at the landfill site, it causes a lot of problems to health including sneezing, burning of eyes and allergies. The residents of Kudupu, Bikarnakatte and Tiruvailu suffered allergies and had developed health problems due to the polluted air in the past. It may be recalled that garbage sliding from the landfill site of Pacchanady in August 2019 had affected many families at Pacchanady and Mandara.
Recently MCC had disbursed Rs 14 cr as interim compensation for 44 victims of the Pachhanady Garbage slide. MCC Mayor Premananda Shetty, Deputy Commissioner Dr Rajendra K V, MCC Commissioner Akshy Sridhar had visited the spot.