Seed plant gutted in Rudrapur fire, loss estimated at 4 crore

Rudrapur: A fire broke out at Baba Deep Seed Plant in Bigwara village in Rudrapur, US Nagar district, late Wednesday night, causing damage of around Rs 4 crore.
The fire at the plant, owned by Balwinder Singh Virk, started around 2.30am when most workers had left for the day. On noticing smoke, a few workers at the site informed Singh who called the fire department.“By the time I arrived, the fire had spread significantly and the blaze had become uncontrollable,” he said. More than six fire brigade tenders were dispatched to the scene. Firefighters tried to douse the fire for several hours before bringing it under control by Thursday morning. The fire gutted around 5,000 quintals of wheat seed, cattle feed and storage sacks. Singh said the estimated loss is around Rs 4 crore. “We lost everything stored in the warehouse,” he said. Fire department officials are probing the cause of the fire.