After successfully running a petrol station for more than four decades, K Ashok Kumar would have never imagined that a terrible Tuesday was waiting to greet him. His heart thumped when a staff member called him in the evening and told him about a fire accident in his petrol pump, Satya filling station, at Alwal.
“Even as I was rushing to the station on hearing the news, I feared the worst. I am relieved that there were no casualties as we usually have many vehicles filling up fuel at that time. The five workers present there managed to escape. The property damage too is not extensive,” Kumar told expresso. The petrol station, established in 1967, happens to be on the busy Rajiv Highway surrounded by many commercial establishments and residential complexes. A gym and a hospital are next to the pump while three banks are at a stone’s throw.
“Had the fire spread to the underground petrol storage tank, the loss would have been unimaginable,” Kumar opined.
Many eyewitnesses too said they feared a disaster in the making. “There was fire all of a sudden and looking at the huge smoke clouds being thrown up from the tanker, I ran for my life,” said Vasanth who sells coconuts on a pushcart by the station.
For Ravi, who has a tailoring shop adjacent to the station, the experience was more harrowing.
His shop and the petrol pump share a common compound wall and it was the extreme heat from the wall that made him realise something wrong happening on the other side.
“As I saw the fire, I had no choice but to immediately shut my shop, move to a safe distance and pray that nothing happens. The flames raged for half-an-hour and then there was a big blast as tyres of the tanker exploded. I was really worried that the fire would spread to the adjoining homes and buildings. It is only due to the god’s grace that nothing untoward happened,” Ravi said. Ashok is confident of reopening the station in about a month’s time after the preliminary investigation and insurance procedures are completed.
rahul.d@expressbuzz.com