Firemen forestall major tragedy

Thanks to alert fire officials, a devastating conflagration was averted on Monday afternoon when a fire broke out inside the godown and storage area of an oil firm in Odhav.

The fire caused much damage in the industrial area but a potentially disastrous situation was avoided when fire brigade staff noticed that below the 300 barrels of burning solvent oil lay as much as one lakh litres of more oil!

When the fire started at Jay Maharaj & Sons, located in Satsang Estate on Odhav ring road and owned by Sunil Jain, officials rushed to the spot with 10 water tankers and 2 fire fighting vehicles to douse the flames. After reaching the spot, they learned about a much bigger danger beneath their feet -- an underground tank filled with 1 lakh litres of oil.

To stop the fire from reaching the underground tank, officials immediately called in 22 more water tankers, each with a capacity of 12,000 liters of water.  As they sprinkled water on the barrels, many of them burst, making their task difficult.  

The fire was so huge that each of the 22 tankers had to return for refilling 4 times in the 5-hour operation.

To control the fire from spreading further, officials sprinkled chemical foam along with water, which finally did the trick.