India: Fire Destroys Two Million kg of Flue-cured

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 08/14/2012

About two million kg of flue-cured tobacco was destroyed in a fire that broke out on August 10 in a warehouse in Andhra Pradesh, India, according to a story in the Hindu, relayed by the TMA. The warehouse was said to be owned by Tobacco Enterprises of India, an affiliate of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh-based Bommidala Purnaiah Holdings. K. Ramesh Babu, a director of the Bommidala Group, said the leaf tobacco was meant for export. A district fire officer was quoted as saying that the fire could not be controlled by hand-held fire extinguishers and that it had taken seven fire trucks at least 12 hours to extinguish it. Most of the tobacco stored in the warehouse had been machine-compressed, which meant that, once it was alight, it was difficult to extinguish completely. Enditem