Fire breaks out during GAIL pipeline work, damages wild trees
Fire created panic among the workers of a palm oil company as well as residents near the company in Tiruvarur district on Sunday. Fire tenders from Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam doused the blaze after an hour-long struggle.
The police said workers from the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) had been laying underground pipelines for carrying natural gas across agricultural fields in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur district. As part of this, GAIL workers were welding two pipes together near the company when sparks fell on dry bushes triggering a fire, which began spreading rapidly.
Hundreds of wild trees and bushes with a radius of 2km were reduced into ashes. Three fire tenders, two from Tiruvarur and one from Keelvelur in Nagapattinam district, rushed there and put off the fire.
