ROURKELA: A major fire broke out at a highway fuel filling station at Birmitrapur town in Sundargarh district on Saturday evening. It took two hours for six fire-fighting teams to bring the fire under control.
Birmitrapur SDPO PK Patra said the reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained. There has been no casualty.
The incident took place when a tanker carrying 15,000 litres diesel and 5,000 litres petrol was evacuating fuel at Harduttrai Ranglal fuel filling station near Bank Colony in Birmitrapur along NH-143. Due to excessive heat, one of the tyres of the tanker burst and the fuel caught fire around 4.45 pm. This led to an inferno.
Four fire-fighting engines emptied all their water stock with spraying, but to little use.
The fire was controlled at about 7 pm after two foam carrying fire-fighting engines rushed to the spot and sprayed foam. Police faced a tough time controlling the teeming onlookers.