From what multiple news reports suggest, the massive fire that engulfed a storage shed containing 130 tonnes of anti-tank mines and ammunition at the country’s Central Ammunition Depot at Pulgaon, near Wardha, in the early hours of Tuesday, is the biggest fire of its kind ever in India. Nineteen people — a lieutenant-colonel and a major, one jawan, 13 civilian fire-fighting personnel and three others — were killed.
In the circumstances, the court of inquiry that has been ordered must be given wide terms of reference which would not only aim to fix responsibility, but also elaborate causes most likely to trigger such fires in our storage depots, given their overall geographical, weather and work environment, even if a smaller set of these likely causes may be responsible in the present instance.
Subsequently, an expert body needs to be constituted to propose the most advanced means of storage for ammunition as the Army grows in size, sophistication, and the diversity of arms and equipment it possesses and will come to possess.
It seems just so extraordinary that dried grass causing combustion due to the intense summer heat can still count as a probable cause in this day and age. If this means the high-value stored stuff is exposed out in the open, the situation is truly shocking. Parliament needs to give the matter very serious thought indeed, and allocate funds for a much needed step-up — even in the middle of the financial year in order to denote urgency and to send out a signal.
