A sudden fire in the Ceramic Lab at IIT-BHU has burnt one and a half million state-of-the-art machines, laptops, appliances, and state-of-the-art batteries, and one million chemicals. According to departmental sources, due to late knowledge of the fire, a large part of the lab was gutted. At the same time, after knowing about the accident, by the time the fire was controlled, many valuable things had been completely gutted by burning. After getting the information, departmental officials also took stock of the occasion. Told that due to a lack of security personnel in the lab, the information of the accident could be delayed.
The lab of the Ceramic Engineering Department of IIT-BHU, known as North India’s most advanced lab, was completely gutted. A massive fire broke out at around two o’clock, in which research and technical equipment worth more than Rs 1.5 crore were burnt to ashes by the professor and seven Ph.D. students. Surprisingly, this fire was detected at 10:30 am on Saturday morning, when the Chahal initiative grew and several twigs of peepal were burnt nearby. There is also an office of the Proctorial Board next to it.
The materials to be burnt included many machines, state-of-the-art batteries, half a million chemicals, laptops, many hard disks, and furniture, etc. The lab was owned by Dr. Pritam Singh, who received a post-doctoral degree in 2019 under the direction of Noble laureate John Goodinff, and for five years he continued to work under the guidance of the Nobel laureate. There was no bigger lab in the field of battery in entire North India. Seven research scholars at IIT-BHU are in the final year, the thesis and material being prepared by all are burned.
Dr. Pritam was working on a fuel cell based on lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen technology.
Rajeev Pratap, dean of research and development, had come to the spot, who has spoken of all possible compensation. It is being said that since the department was formed, its wiring has not been changed, due to which the short circuit is being feared. At the same time, the Proctorial Board had changed the duty of the security personnel a few days ago, so that no security personnel was there during the fire. Head of Department Prof. VK Singh said that the cost of a battery was fifty lakh rupees, which has become completely burnt to ashes. One student said that on January 4, the staff had written a letter to talk about security, but no attention was paid. There is no way or solution to extinguish the fire. Had the security guard not seen this situation.
