Belthangady: A matchstick production unit at Kanydi near Dharmasthala gutted in fire on Wednesday afternoon and a part of the forest area has been destroyed.

The mishap took place at around 1 pm in the afternoon at the unit of Vinayak industries in Kanyadi. A spark from the boiler started the fire to the wooden waste kept here which consequently spread to the forest area as well. The fire personnel had to work hard to douse the fire. The wooden waste and the sticks have all been destroyed in the incident. Close to two acres of forest land has been burnt a

A holiday was declared at the factory as a relative of the owner had died and hence the owner had also left for Kerala. The temperature at Belthangady on Wednesday was 43 degree Celsius and since the unit also lacked fire and safety equipment, it led to the intense difficulty to manage the fire, inform the locals. The locals also assisted in dousing the fire.

A gas bunk is located in the vicinity of the spot where the fire mishap occurred and this cause much fear amongst the locals. When the fire personnel ran out of water, a local firm identified as Pavitra construction provided assistance by giving two tankers of 12,000 liters water capacity each. The operation to douse the fire lasted till 5 pm in the evening.