Chilly worth Rs5 billion were destroyed when a massive fire broke out in India's biggest chilly yard in Guntur city of Andhra Pradesh, 350 km east of Hyderabad on Saturday morning and the authorities have started evacuating the people residing in the neighborhood as the fire and the smoke has created panic in the area. The Guntur district superintendent of police Mahesh Chandra Laddha, who is supervising the rescue and relief operations, said that the fire had already gutted two thirds of the yard spread over an area of 50 acres. “However there is no report of any casualty so far”, he said over telephone. Not many people were inside the yard at the time of the fire as it was a holiday to the market. Ten fire engines were trying to control the fire but the winds were hampering the efforts, he said. More fire extinguishers were sought from the neighboring districts of Krishna and Prakasham. The region is already in the grip of intense heat wave and temperature has crossed 43 degree Celsius. Laddha said that it was difficult at the moment to say what exactly had caused the fire. “That will be looked in to later but our immediate worry is to control the fire and stop it from spreading to the other areas,” he said. However, some local people said that either an electric short circuit or the cooking by laborers within the yard compound could have caused fire. There were 450 commission shops, purchasing chilly from the farmers, within the yard and all of them have gutted in the fire. The plumes of black smoke and orange flames were seen from far off as the panic stricken farmers were trying to salvage bags of chilly to the possible extent. It was estimated that chilly worth Rs5 billion, packed in gunny bags was lying in the yard at the time of the fire accident. But the officials said they did not have any clear idea about the quantity of the chilly kept in the yard. The police and revenue department officials were asking the people in the vicinity of the yard to vacate their houses and move to safer places. “We are doing it as a precautionary measure”, Laddha said. Guntur has the biggest chilly yard in the country catering to the thousands of farmers growing chilly in the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh, specially in the districts of Krishna, Prakasham and Guntur. The fire has come as a big blow to the farmers who were already reeling under the heavy crop loss because of the un-seasonal rains in the month of March. Chilly is among the produces whose prices have shot up in the Indian domestic and international market in the recent weeks. The failure of chilly crop in China has also contributed to the increase in the commodity price. __
