Bikaner ordnance depot fire kills two

bikaner: massive fire broke out in the army's temporary ordnance sub-depot at udasar military area, about 3 km from the historic city. two civilians died when rockets and wreckage from the blast site flew and fell on a nearby dharamshala. five others were seriously injured. defence minister george fernandes, meanwhile, has ordered a probe into the incident. he will be visiting the depot on saturday. one of the dead is gopal harsh, a local hospital employee. apparently, civilian trucks which brought ammunitions from various army depots were parked at the temporary depot. unconfirmed report said that the fire broke out at 3 p.m. when the jawans were cooking their food inside the depot. soon after, the local residents began hearing the sound of ammunition blasts. heavy smoke was seen billowing out of the ammunition depot which is located at the bikaner-jaipur national highway. sound of the blasts could be heard as far as five kilometres away from the depot. district officials said that the fire was being controlled using civil and army fire tenders. while no casualty has been reported, army personnel were seen running for safety from the depot area. it is likely that several army and civilian personnel, who were on duty on friday afternoon when the fire broke out, are trapped inside the depot. no official information about the number of persons trapped inside the depot was available. efforts to contact the army's desert commander at jodhpur proved unsuccessful. the civil administration, which has rushed several fire tenders to the site of incident, helped evacuate civilian residential colonies within the radius of eight kilometre area. the residents here have taken shelter at their relatives or friends' place. two colonies which are located within half-a-kilometre from the ammunition depot saw panic scene with people rushing to safer places under the deafening sound of blasting ammunition. shells, rockets and wreckages fell in eight kilometre area around the depot. people locked themselves inside their houses as shells continued to fall in large numbers. families of the army personnel were also evacuated from the military area. all the petrol pumps in the area were closed and several vehicles were stranded for want of fuel. according to the district collectors fire tenders from nearby places are being rushed to bikaner to combat the blaze in the depot. some fire tenders have been summoned from nearby states of haryana and punjab also.