Fire at Bajaj Hindusthan's Kinauni sugar mill kills two workers

New Delhi: Two workers have died while one has been hospitalised with burn injuries in a fire which broke out in Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar’s mill at Kinauni in Meerut on Saturday, the company said.

In a regulatory filing today, Bajaj Hindusthan informed that the fire broke out in one of the storage tanks at its distillery division during loading of ethanol in containers.

The incident took place in the afternoon on May 26 and the fire could be fully extinguished in the evening next day with help of state fire department along with the army.

“The fire has caused serious burn injuries to three workmen at the distillery site. All the three injured workmen were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. Two of the injured workmen succumbed to burn injuries and the other one is being treated at the hospital,” the company said, adding that the company would provide necessary support to families of these workmen.

Bajaj Hindusthan said it is investigating the matter with the help of local law enforcement and district administration.

“The fire completely damaged one out of ten storage tanks in the distillery division. The entire stock of industrial alcohol in this storage tank and three containers that were being loaded, aggregating to approx. 18 lakh litres have been destroyed,” the filing said.

As per its preliminary assessment, the company said this incident would not have any material bearing on the overall operations/performance.

Being off-season, there was no loss of sugar production at Kinauni mill on account of this incident.

Bajaj Hindusthan is the country’s largest sugar firm with 14 mills in Uttar Pradesh having cane crushing capacity of 1.36 lakh tonnes per day. It also manufactures ethanol.