SRIKAKULAM: Shrubs in one and a half acres were gutted after a fire broke out in the forest coming under the wildlife sanctuary area abutting the Allandhra Road near Patapatanam in Thursday afternoon.
Having received an alert from the locals the forest officials rushed to the spot with fire tenders from Tekkali and doused the flames.
According to Patapatanam forest range officer Soma Sekhar, the fire broke our in the forest at around 3.30 pm, while and the fire tenders reached the spot by 4. 30 pm. “One and a half acres of forest was in flames. But, only waste plants and dry leaves were gutted and no damage was done to the forest,” he said.
However, the fire spread to the paddy straw stacks belonging to two farmers near the forest area were gutted, he added.