A major fire broke out in a plywood manufacturing company at Rubber Park in Irapuram, around 10 km away from Perumbavoor town, inflicting, as per preliminary estimates, damage running into crores of rupees in the early hours of Saturday.
Initial SOS was received at the Pattimattom fire station around 5 a.m. However, it soon emerged that it was a much bigger fire than what units from a single station could handle, and as such units from other stations across the district were roped in.
According to Fire and Rescue Services personnel, the electronic panel board went up in flames disrupting the protective circuit breaker thus doing away with protection against overloads and short circuits. Though the company had a proper firefighting mechanism, it could not be put to use owing to the damage to the electronic panel board and the resultant power trip. Cables went up in flames owing to short circuit, and all motors failed while the generator did not work either.
The largely automated company with relatively limited workforce works round the clock. It follows a system where the wood is initially shredded into dust before being mixed, dried, and made into plywood sheets.
“The fire did most of the damage in the central processing area and hence machinery was the worst affected compared to finished stock. The area was entirely dusty, and wood dust is highly combustible. Water doesn’t easily percolate into dust and that coupled with smoke made firefighting tougher,” said P.N. Subramanian, grade station officer, Perumbavoor fire station.
While the main fire was brought under control around 9 a.m., it took many more hours to douse the scattered fire and remove the stock from inside using a forklift. There was fire inside the drier tank, and it had to be manually rotated to pour out the dust inside the tank to put out the fire.
Around 18 fire tenders and close to 100 firefighters from Perumbavoor, Angamaly, Aluva, Gandhi Nagar, Thrikkakara, Pattimattom, Muvattupuzha, Kalloorkkad, and Kothamangalam worked for hours to bring the situation under control. Ernakulam District Fire Officer K. Harikumar supervised the firefighting work that was coordinated by Pattimattom station officer N.M. Hassainar and Mr. Subramanian.
