A massive fire and resultant explosions at Indian Army's largest ammunition depot at Pulgaon in Wardha district of Maharashtra has resulted in the death of at least 16 soldiers including two officers, and left several others injured.
The fire was reported at around 1:30 am on Tuesday following which there was a massive explosion. A secondary explosion was reported after a few hours.
The officers and jawans present inside the depot tried to douse the massive blazed but many were caught in it leading to the death of two officers and 14 jawans of the Defence Service Corps.
The Central Ammunition Depot, Pulgaon, which is almost 110 km from Nagpur, is spread over 10,000 acres. It stores all types of ammunition used by the Army including artillery shells, anti-tank missiles and the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos.
There are three major ordinance factories in the nearby regions at Ambajhari, Chamba and Nagpur. The depot also has the war wastage reserve, ie, the reserve that can last for at least three weeks in case of war. Ammunition from various ordinance factories come to the Pulgaon depot first and is then distributed to various forward areas.
Defence expert Nitin Gokhale said that the depot housed ammunition of different vintage and it is very likely that the old stock caught fire. “There seems to be a failure of controlled temperature system as many of these sheds have different temperature control systems. This one is located is in a high temperature zone. The temperature could have been so high that they exploded," he said.
He added that the investigators would look at all angles including accident, sabotage, insider job, and faulty equipment.
While the police say the fire has been controlled but Army maintains that secondary explosions are making it difficult for rescue workers to pull out bodies. A court of enquiry has been ordered.
Three nearby villages have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.
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