Sambalpur: At least 25 workers were injured, seven of them critically, in a devastating fire in a Gutka factory at the outskirts of Sambalpur town in Western Odisha on Monday.
Although the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained the management sources said the fire was reported in the packaging machine which later spread to other areas causing massive damages to the unit injuring the so many workers
All the injured workers were admitted to different hospitals. The seven critically injured workers were, however, shifted to the VSSIMSR in Birla
The short circuit might be the cause of the fire in the factory, a senior police officer said
The Gutka factory sources said was running without a no-objection certificate from the Fire department so far.
However, timely action by police and fire fighting departments had averted a major mishap.
Police sources said it took almost four hours for the fire tenders to extinguish the blaze.
A Public School with a student strength of nearly one thousand was located close to the factory but there were no students in the school due to Covid restrictions.
