Kakinada, June 9^th: Property worth nearly 2 crore was gutted in a fire mishap that took place on Tuesday at Kedia oil refinery in Vakalapudi industrial area in Kakinada city suburbs. The fire brought the tin roofed godowns crashing down and destroyed edible oils and vanaspati in large quantities. One of the sweepers who noticed the fire in the refinery alerted the staff on duty. The fire tenders battled for more than four hours to bring the situation into control. However no casualties were reported as workers came out of the place, after noticing the flames.

Electric short circuit is said to be the reason for the mishap. Residents in the neighboring areas particularly in Vakalapudi BC colony ran out of their home, fearing the spread of flames. The flames started at around 8am and were controlled by 1pm. Apart from the fire engines of the AP Fire Service, fire engines of local industrial houses including NFCL, Coramandal, Spectrum Power and Reliance Industries participated to control the fire. The Kakinada RDO, Mr. G.C Kishore Kumar and DFO Mr. G. Yoseph and others visited the place and supervised the operations.