Udupi (The Hindu): As many as 20 small huts of migrant workers were destroyed in an outbreak of fire at Adkadakatte near Nittur here on Monday. However, there were no injuries or loss of life in the incident.

The incident took place around 2 p.m. The huts belonged to migrant workers and they had all gone out to work, when the fire broke out. Two gas cylinders in the huts too got exploded due to the fire.

Chandrashekhar Bhandary, Fire Station Officer, told The Hindu that the fire station received a call at 2.15 p.m. A fire tender rushed to the spot immediately. Since this was not enough, another fire tender was requisitioned from the Fire Station in Malpe. As many as 12 fire services personnel worked for over an hour and brought the fire under control.

“As the gas cylinders may have already been used, the explosion was not massive. We were told that there was a heap of dry waste and someone in the neighbourhood set fire to it. While waste was burning, sparks flew and fell on a hut and it caught fire, which spread rapidly,” he said.

“Since these huts have plastic and dry coconut leaves for their roofs, they are highly inflammable,” said Maheshchandra, Udupi Tahsildar.

The utensils and other daily use items of the workers were completely burnt. About five coconut trees nearby caught fire but it was extinguished by the fire services personnel.

About 50 migrant workers were living in these huts. They had shifted to the huts of their relatives nearby. The huts were built on “patta land” at Adkadakatte. Meenakshi Bannanje, president of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC), visited the spot as soon as she learnt of incident.