Eight private buses were gutted as a major fire broke out at the wood complex here on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
Prakasam District Fire Officer S. Srinivasa Rao said three fire tenders — one each from Kandukur, Addanki and Tangutur joined an equal number of fire tenders here and brought the blaze under control in about 2 hours.
Alert disaster management personnel swiftly acted to prevent the fire from spreading to 17 other private air-conditioned buses parked in a row with not much gap in between in the vacant space near to a row of timber shops on the West bypass road here.
The loss was estimated to be over ₹six crore in the mishap, the cause of which, was not immediately known. Timber waste had got accumulated over a period in the place which also had some trees as well causing the fire to spread thick and fast.
Private vehicles which had been operated from here to, among other places, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru by the bus operators, were in disuse due to lack of patronage from the customers during COVID-19 pandemic, a bus owner K Venkateswara Rao, who rushed to the spot, said..
It was a double whammy for the private bus operators who were already incurring losses due to reduced travel in the wake of COVID-19 induced economic crisis that had gripped the nation. Though lockdown and other curbs had been lifted, travel by public had not picked up yet, Mr. Rao lamented.
