A major fire broke out in the haystacks of mushrooms producing company, the Fresh Bowl Horticulture Private Limited, at Orvakal in the district. Fire personnel are fighting for more than eight hours to bring the blaze under control.
While a four-year-old girl Muneer, daughter of a labourer from Kolkata, is missing, the Fire and Police Department personnel estimate the loss of property at ₹2 crore. No injuries to anyone have been recorded and the immovable properties of the unit were safe.
Kurnool Taluka Circle Inspector M. Srinath Reddy and District Fire Officer V. Sreenivas Reddy said the incident took place at 9.45 a.m. at the mushroom producing unit where a large quantity of haystack was kept and the locals tried to extinguish it themselves, but it did not come under control. The Fire and Police were informed about it at 10.30 a.m. and five fire tenders were on the job trying to put out the fire.
Police and Fire personnel said that there were about 70 workers from Bengal and Tripura working on the unit for the past 24 days, and on Wednesday, the daughter of Shadhali and Palvali Baby, both employed on the unit, was playing and after the fire broke out, the girl was not seen anywhere and a search was on to find her.
For mushroom production, hay is the key component and the Fire Department personnel were checking if all the safety measures were taken and if such stacking of hay was permitted in such large quantities.
