Videocon plant at Butibori gutted

Property worth crores of rupees was gutted in a major fire at the AB Electrolux washing machine plant, acquired by Videocon, at Butibori industrial estate near the city on Tuesday morning. There was no official estimate of the loss suffered, but some sources pegged the damage at Rs 9 crore.

However, no casualty has been reported so far.

The plant, built by Voltas in 1984, was taken over by the Indian arm of Swedish multinational, AB Electrolux in 1998. It changed hands recently and is now a Videocon group unit.

Security guards with Ex-servicemen multi-purpose services Pvt Ltd, which has a training facility near the unit, noticed thick smoke coming out from the EKL premises early morning.

They informed the fire station and rushed to put out the fire. By the time the firemen reached the spot, most of the unit was engulfed by fire.

The entire testing line, store rooms, records, computers, gearbox machines and finished goods were soon reduced to ashes. Fibre materials used in assembling washing machines, too, melted in the heat.

Two fire tenders from Indo Rama's unit nearby and three from Nagpur Fire Brigade were also pressed into service.It took them over six hours to put out the fire.

The firemen said an electric short circuit might have caused the fire.

It was not known whether the unit was insured or not. No senior executive of the company was available to give the details of loss or the possible cause of fire.

The working hours at the unit were from 9 am to 5 pm. The unit had 19 regular workers and 10 odd workers employed on a temporary basis. The plant had a production capacity of 500 units of washing machines per month. Sources said production will be resumed once the losses are estimated.

Butibori police have meanwhile registered a case and are investigating further.