Kundapur; Oct 21: As a result of somersault of the lorry, which was going from Mangalore to Haveri carrying gas cylinders, a major fire broke out on Hosangady-Shimoga’s Bale bare Ghat on Oct 21, Monday evening and quickly spread to more than 200 cylinders in the vehicle.
Details of the incident: A lorry belonging to M/s.Deekshit gas agency was transporting gas cylinders to Ranebennur from Mangalore in Haveri. In the evening, as driver lost the control of the vehicle, lorry has somersaulted near Hosangady Ghat resulting gas cylinder in the vehicle caught fire accidentally and exploded. Within no time, the other cylinders also went up in flames.
Police swung into action immediately and arrived to the place of incident. More than 15 fire brigades vehicle from Kundapur,Sagar,Theerthahalli and including Udupi arrived to the spot and pressed into action and could able to bring the fire under control after struggling continuously for about three hours.
However, the ghat area was cordoned off for radius of 3 km on both sides to prevent further damage.The vehicles on this route were diverted. The traffic was jammed for about 3 to four hours.
Luckily, as it was forested area, no injury or loss of life was reported. The lorry as well as cylinders was completely damaged, sources said. Both driver and conductor of the vehicle escaped unhurt, as reported.
