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Mamoon depot fire losses put at Rs 150 million

About four to seven metric tonne of ammunition worth Rs 150 million has been destroyed in Sunday night's fire at the Mamoon ammunition depot in Pathankot, believed to have been caused by spontaneous combustion, defence sources said Monday.

Co-axle machine guns and 125 mm tank ammunition were destroyed in the fire, which was put out by 0100 hrs. The fire was caused by spontaneous combustion of the ammunition kept on a plinth covered by water proof tarpaulin, they said.

"Due to increase in day temperature, which exceeded 40 degrees celcius on Sunday, there might have been some friction in the ammunition stock leading to the fire," the sources said. No injuries have been reported so far.

Panic-stricken civilians, who moved out of their houses soon after the blasts, have returned following assurance from the police and a Border Security Force battalion on a public address system that there was no threat as the fire was quite a distance away.

The fire brigade continued to spray water over the ammunition to prevent further explosions, they said, adding fire tenders from army, airforce and from neighbouring Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir were pressed into service.

The army sealed the area of Mamoon Cantonment on the outskirts of Pathankot and sounded an alert in Gurdaspur district where the depot is located.

A series of explosions had swept through an army ammunition depot in Bharatpur in Rajasthan last year damaging ammunition worth millions of rupees.

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