Palakkad: A fire broke out at a waste dumping site in a village of this district in the wee hours of Saturday. According to fire and rescue personnel, a huge quantity of plastic waste collected by the 'Haritha Karma Sena' was dumped near Chittur village and the dump caught fire around 4 am.
The 'Haritha Karma Sena' is a Kerala government initiative in the field of sanitation and waste management in local self-government bodies in the state. A fire and rescue services officer who went to the incident site said that around six fire tenders were pressed into service before the blaze was brought under control.
"The fire will not spread any more. We are waiting for it to burn out. No one was harmed in the incident. A north Indian family living nearby was evacuated before we began our operation," the officer said.
He also said that there was no proper road to the dumping site for large vehicles to approach and therefore, they had to make a path first for the fire tenders to reach the area. The officer also said that while the exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, it was not due to any short circuit.
