 Early Times Report
BARAMULLA, Sept 21: In the early hours of Friday morning, a mosque was gutted in a fire at Jetty Khawaja Bagh area of this north Kashmir district, the fire tenders reached late by half an hour, due to which the fire was not immediately controlled, said Masjid Committee members. After there was an Azzan, the locals who had turned for Nimaz saw huge flames that were coming out of the top floor of the mosque, said local resident Mohammad Muzaffer of Jetty.
He said that the locals alarmed the nearby about this unfortunate incidents who immediately ranged the Fire and Emergency services stationed at Baramulla town, just two to three kilometers away from the Jetty area.
Another local said that, fire and emergency reached late by almost thirty to forty minutes, even after people telephoned them for help and by the time the top floor of the mosque was completely gutted in fire.
After the hectic efforts, the locals and fire tender rushed to the spot and prevented the fire from spreading to nearby locality and controlled the fire, however, the second storey of the mosque suffered extensive damage, said locals.
Though the cause of the fire was not immediately ascertained, but people believe that short circuit may be a reason of fire, adding the material worth rupees in lakhs was destroyed in the fire mishap.
However locals have questioned about the fire and emergency service, and said that, there are two vehicles and the driver of the fire extinguisher was not present there and the vehicles were running without water. Mehraj-Ud Din, a local said that, Baramulla district is the oldest district of north Kashmir, and this is the headquarter the all the officials who are stationed at district headquarter should be on toes to meet any disaster or natural calamity, but unfortunately that is invisible here in Baramulla district.
They have appealed the higher authorities to take note of the negligence of Fire and Emergency services so that no untoward happening will occur in future.
Meanwhile police has taken cognizance of the incident. |
