Cherlapally fire: Management claims short circuit, Factories Dept says missing spark arrestor could have triggered explosion

A fire that broke out at a chemical factory at IDA Cherlapally on Tuesday evening might have been triggered by static current in solvents, a Factories Department official said. While the management has cited ‘electrical short circuit’ as the cause of the fire, Medchal-Malkajgiri Inspector of Factories K. Sridhara Rao said that preliminary examination of the factory premises tells a different story. “While the fire safety system was in place, it seems to have been triggered by sparks from the goods carrier vehicle parked in the premises reacting to highly inflammable chemicals. The driver is incommunicado.” A spark arrestor typically traps and pulverises hot exhaust carbon particles expelled from an internal combustion engine, preventing the propagation of flames and explosions.