Visakhapatnam: Massive fire breaks out at storage yard at Venkatapuram

Visakhapatnam: A massive fire broke out at Venkatapuram village in Munagapaka mandal in Visakhapatnam district. Flames erupted from the storage yard on the premises of Gayatri Agencies where oil drums were stored on Sunday late night. When the locals who stay close to the pharma city in Parawada were settling to sleep, some of them heard blasts.

The FRB tankers left at the premises were burnt to ashes. A blanket of thick smoke engulfed the nearby villages such as Venkatapuram, Ramaraidupeta, Thanam, making locals scurry from their homes out of fear. Fortunately, none was injured and there were no casualties reported.

Meanwhile, firefighters rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control around midnight. Anakapalle RDO Sitarama Rao immediately rushed to the spot and prepared the primary report. He said it would be submitted to the District Collector A Mallikarjuna. According to assistant fire officer Venkata Ramana, the agency doesn't have any permission to run the yard at the premises. It is learnt that there was no certification from the Pollution Control Board.

The storage yard is where chemical and oil filled drums were brought, cleaned and sold.

Village sarpanch Sundarapu Tataji and union leaders accused the yard management for operating the facility without obtaining any permission from the authorities concerned.