Cotton worth crores gutted,two firemen injured; shops destroyed

Kolhapur, Apr 27 (UNI) Two firemen were injured in a fire that broke out at a shipping mill godown on the outskirts of the city today, while several shops were gutted in another fire at Kale town, 20 km from here.

In the first incident, a major fire broke out at Eurotech Mill's godown near MIDC Gokul Shirgaon at the outskirts of the city at around 1230 hrs during the day. The inferno destroyed huge bales of cotton stocked inside the godown of the spinning mill.

About seven fire tenders-four from Kolhapur Municpal Corporation (KMC), two from Sangli Municipal Corporation (SMC) and one from Miraj tehsil town- were pressed into action. Fire tenders from nearby co-operative sugar factories also rushed to the spot.

Fire fighters are still fighting the blaze, which started this afternoon. Two of them were injured, while trying to put out the flames and have been identified as Nivrutti Patil and Kanta Bandekar.

KMC Fire Cheif Datta Mahadik told UNI, ''We are trying our best to control the fire.'' When asked about the cause of fire, he said, ''Exact cause of fire would only be known after preliminary investigations.'' The loss is pegged at around Rs two crore, sources said.

Another incident of fire was reported from Kale town in Pannala tehsil, 20 km from here in which, a medical shop, grocery store and xerox shop were gutted. The exact cause of fire is not yet known.

Investigations are on, fire brigade sources said.

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