Fire breaks out at Army depot at Pulgaon in Maharashtra, several casualties feared

[guest11]

Army statement says 16 people have died which include 2 officers, 1 soldier & 13 civilian staff.Entire fire was confined to only 1 shed out of 322 in 30 sq.km base.
Minister of Defence himself ruled out sabotage.

Journalists based in the area say that the fire occured after personel were loading anti tank landmines which were to disposed onto trucks of which triggered during handling.
Around 130 tonnes of anti tank mines were destroyed.
While an army committe in 2011 ordered the disposal of over 100,000 old and defective mines, the process has been slow

@guest11 @GURU DUTT @FNFAL @T-72M1

As I said, heads should roll. Why in the ***** name DSC personnel are handling explosives? They are not qualified for ordnance disposal and is it not their job. Conflicting reports are coming in about the casualties, some say 13 DSC personnel died, some say 13 firefighters.

Although hats off to the fire fighters, both civilian and military for getting this under control. Largest ammo base could have spelt a much larger disaster.

 

[T-72M1]

Most likely poorly stored munitions in extremely hot weather. RIP for the service men.

na, they don't catch fire just being exposed to weather, besides, it was a shed that went up, so they were in a warehouse facility.

Minister of Defence himself ruled out sabotage.

good to hear, that's a relief.

another silver lining, if you can call it that in a tragedy where people died, is that the fire was contained, and to a lesser extent, that the munitions themselves were old and to be disposed off.

still needs to be a thorough investigation, guilty held to account, and procedures changed where there was human error and negligence.

 

[Tripoli]

RIP

 

[duhastmish]

Bloody stupid!

Careless as per reports, the fire truck reached in less than a hour. Bloody idiots it should be standing there 24x7.

What a big loss of national security assests and human lives.

Now they better not whin about lack of ammunition if they can't take of expensive stuff.

Rip to fallen.

 

[CHACHA"G"]

sad incident . RIP to all dead especially those brave fire fighters who gave there life to control the fire (for saving 1000s others). It is heroic act .