Fire at petrol pump at Ramanthapur

HYDERABAD: Fire broke out at Uppal Auto Services petrol pump of Indian Oil Corporation at Ramanthapur on Tuesday evening. The machine was completely damaged in the fire mishap. Two staff members of the petrol pump, Narasimha Reddy and Ramesh, suffered minor injuries in the incident. Customers and staff members of the petrol pump ran to safety after noticing the fire. Some staff members tried to put out the flames using foam extinguishers.The staff of nearby petrol pump, which is just 300 metres away from the mishap site, rushed to the spot and assisted them in firefighting. Soon after receiving a phone call from the petrol pump around 5.25 pm,  fire service officials sent one fire tender from Moulali and another from Malkajgiri. The two fire tenders  reached the petrol pump within minutes and started firefighting operations. To prevent flames from spreading to other parts of the petrol pump, the entire premises was doused with foam.  The timely action of the staff of the petrol pump and fire service personnel averted a major disaster as a gas filling station was also located on the same premises. A petrol tanker  was unloading fuel into the tanks of the filling station when the vending machine caught fire.  Though the exact reason of the fire  is yet to be ascertained, the fire service officials suspect the use of a mobile phone on the premises by a customer or the excess heat generated in the vending machine might have led to the mishap.