Early Times Report
BARAMULLA, Mar 8: At least 20 shops gutted in a massive blaze due to lighting storm which broke out during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday in Watergam area of Rafiabad in this north Kashmir district.
Sources said that fire broke out in a two-storey shopping complex in Watergam area, in which goods worth lakhs were destroyed.
They said that the fire broke out in one of the shops in the complex and soon engulfed the surrounding inside the complex.
The fire broke out, fire and emergency services were deputed to tye spot to douse off the flames, however, by the time they reached the spot several shops were already gutted by massive blaze, said sources.
The first floor of the complex suffered extensive damage while the ground floor of the complex suffered partial damage, sources informed ET.
However an official of F&ED said that a massive fire was set off by the lightning storm in an old building housing eight shops in the ground floor, seven empty rooms besides a Patwar Khana in its first floor at Rafiabad area of the district during the intervening night of March 7-8.
All shops dealing with different mercantile and rooms besides the Patwar Khana (housing revenue record) were gutted.
Among the shops, one of them houses a kerosene oil depot. It actually led to substantial damage, the official said.
He said that four tenders from as many fires and emergency stations, Dangiwachi, Seelu, Rohama, and Kralgund, worked in unison to douse off the flames. It was after hectic efforts that the fire was extinguished. |
