A major fire at Apollo Tyres at Kalamassery reportedly cost the company a loss of approximately Rs15 crore, excluding damages to the building. Fire and rescue officials are set to conduct a detailed examination of the site and submit a report on financial loss.
Confirming the news, Apollo Tyres authorities said, “Infrastructure and machines have been badly affected. While the local team is trying to ascertain the cause of the fire, as it is covered under insurance, there will not be a loss to the company. Alternative arrangements have been made for sourcing the mixed compound — the output of the unit destroyed — and normal production is expected to be resumed at this facility in the next few days.”
The cause of fire is yet to be identified. According to fire personnel it should be either a short circuit or a spark from the mixer machine, but cannot be confirmed as the entire place was burned down. The fire caught the Banbury unit of the company at 10.26 pm and continued till 2 am.
It was the valiant effort of the 15 units of fire and safety personnel in the city that helped to contain the fire without causing casualties.
However, several fire fighters had slight burns during the mission, while the uniforms of many were torn off. Firefighters under the leadership of Ernakulam divisional officer Joe Kuruvilla Eesho and assistant divisional officer Abdul Rasheed fought for hours to bring down the fire.