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| 8 shops, residential complex gutted in devastating fire | | Functioning of disaster management cell exposed in Kishtwar | |
Early Times Report
KISHTWAR, July 19: After an alarm raised by the state government in all districts of the state in wake of fire incident at famous Sufi Saint Sheikh Abdul Qadir Geelani commonly known as Dastgeer Sahib last month, the slogan of state government led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah proves as hollow as the disaster management cell in Kishtwar failed to act within the shortest possible time to control the fire at ever busy Shaheedi road Kishtwar just few hundred meters away from Deputy Commissioner Office Kishtwar and less than one Kilometre from fire service department office Kishtwar resulted into loss of property worth nearly one crore.
The fire first broke out inside the shop of one Rajesh Kumar Sharma due to fault in transformer of Power Development Department resulted into supply of 440 Volt of electricity which not only damaged TV sets, Refrigerators, ceiling fans and other electronic equipments in Abu Bakar Mohallah Kishtwar, but also raised shopping lane and a residential complex to dust.
Due to 440 Volt electricity supply, the fire erupt in the adjacent shops as well as a result of which the fire engulfed the entire line of shops and also the adjacent residential complex in which six families including some tenants were residing.
The fire started at about 3.30 AM and the family members as well as some neighbour after witnessing smoke comes out of their homes at around 3.50 AM, they bring the matter into the notice of police and fire tender services.
Though Senior Police officials including Additional SP Kishtwar Kulbir Singh and Dy SP HQ Kishtwar Abrar Chowdhary reached the spot within 20 minutes and started rescue operation joined by local youths and Red Cross Kishtwar team, but fire tenders fail to reach the spot well in time. With the help of the local youths police first evacuated the trapped persons and tried to put off the fire with the help of buckets as two fire tenders reached the spot after one hour despite the fact that fire tender service office is situated less than 1 KM from the site of incident that too on main road.
Till the fire tenders reached the spot whole of the residential complex as well as over a dozen shops were already under huge fire threatening adjacent shopping complex and residential building shouldering neck to neck. The irony is that when Dy. SP HQ Kishtwar who himself hold the water pipe and suffered minor burn injuries as well managed to control the fire, but both the fire tenders within 10-15 minutes after reaching the spot went out of water as the both the fire tenders are without sufficient water storage.
In the mean time, police also seeks the help of NHPC fire service station, but they too fail to react on time.
After dejected from all the sides, army and CRPF was called in by the authorities for help. It was not only the fault of out dated fire tenders, but senior PHE officials too fell asleep as despite several attempts by police and other officials, they did not respond to the repeated calls. It was only after 8 shops and one residential complex got totally damaged, Incharge Xen PHE Kishtwar Ashwani Gupta reached the spot along with water tanker at 7 AM.
It is to mention for the information that incharge Xen PHE Kishtwar residence is only 300 meters away from the site. Though the government claims that they have reviewed all fire safety norms in state, but today's incident put question mark on the government claims as the disaster management cell written in papers fail to act and the incident also shows the lack of cooperation within various organizations who are the members of the disaster management cell.
Meanwhile Rakesh Gupta, President Chamber of Commerce and Industries blamed the electricity department for today's incident.
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