160-acre wheat gutted in Barnala, Moga, Fatehgarh Sahib
BARNALA/MOGA/FATEHGARH SAHIB: Fire broke out in wheat fields at six villages of Barnala, Moga and Fatehgarh Sahib districts and destroyed standing wheat crop over around 160 acres on Saturday.
In Barnala, a fire was reported in the fields of three adjoining villages, which destroyed crop over around 100 acres.
District chief agricultural officer Karnail Singh Sandhu said
the fire, which was probably caused by sparking in the overhead electric cables, broke out in Khuddi, Sukhpura Maur and Dhilwan villages.
“While the standing crop was gutted over around 100 acres, the fire also destroyed stubble in fields over another 100 acres where harvesting had been completed,” he said. The estimated loss of crop amounted to around Rs 40 lakh, he added.
Fire officer Gurjit Singh said, “We received a call at 11.17am and immediately rushed a fire tender. As the fire has spread over a vast area, two more tenders were sent later to douse the flames.”However, villagers alleged that the police and fire department staff reached late at the spot.
Gursewak Singh, a farmer, said, “Police reached too late here. And when they came, they started arguing whether the area falls under the jurisdiction of Tapa police station or Sehna.”
Another farmer Gurpreet Singh said, “If fire tenders could have reached early, much of the loss could have been avoided.”
Sehna station house officer (SHO) Jagjit Singh said, “When the fire broke out, our ASI Avtar Singh was already on the spot in connection with some other case. Our police party immediately rushed there when Avtar alerted us.”
In Moga, standing wheat crop spread over 35 acres was gutted at Manuke village in Nihal Singh Wala tehsil.
The fire broke out after a spark emerged out of a combine harvester when the driver was trying to start it.
Villagers alleged that the fire tenders reached the spot an hour after the incident when the flames were somehow doused by farmers. In Fatehgarh Sahib, over 25 acres of crop was gutted in Peerjain and Mirpur villages.
Sirhind fire officer Harbans Singh informed that they received calls from Mirpur and Peerjain at 2pm and 2.25 pm respectively and rushed fire tenders immediately.