Darjeeling, April 20.TT: Lhamu Sherpa was in the worst possible place one could be during a fire — on the fifth floor of a building which was minutes away from catching flames.
“I heard a lot of commotion from my room which is on the top floor of the building. I don’t remember anything else other than running downstairs. I could see about four to five people who were also trying to get out of the building,” said the businesswoman in her twenties who lost her home.
The moment she scrambled on to HD Lama Road, she could only see people shouting and running aimlessly. “People were crying, shouting and for a moment my mind went completely blank,” Sherpa said. The lady could not say what the exact time was but insisted that it must have been around 2am or so.
She lived in the five-storeyed concrete building which along with a cluster of few more wooden structures, some of them two-storeyed, made up the market area.
Just beside the concrete building, Sherpa saw flames leaping “from somewhere around a garment shop” on the ground floor. “I remember there was more smoke than fire at that time.” For a moment, she thought the blaze could be controlled as the fire tenders had arrived and a lot of volunteers had reached the spot. That help had come comforted the residents but only for a moment.
The situation changed in a flash when gas cylinders burst. “I heard a cylinder burst. I think I heard two cylinders burst and the flames leaped high into the sky and the blaze suddenly seemed unmanageable,” said Sherpa.
With the fire virtually uncontrollable because of the wooden structures, people focussed on saving the concrete building where Sherpa lived.
Fire tenders were being filled with water stored by the hotels. At this moment, Sherpa saw her concrete building go up in flames. Nothing worthwhile could be salvaged because the building was one of the first few structures to go up in flames. As her building caught fire, a strong wind that blew from east to west further complicated matters.
“The wind blew from east to west and this fanned the flames towards the wooden structure,” said another eyewitness Sonam Bhutia.
It was probably because of the wind that about half a dozen shops which lie between NB Singh Road and NH55 were also razed to the ground.
“I heard a lot of commotion from my room which is on the top floor of the building. I don’t remember anything else other than running downstairs. I could see about four to five people who were also trying to get out of the building,” said the businesswoman in her twenties who lost her home.
The moment she scrambled on to HD Lama Road, she could only see people shouting and running aimlessly. “People were crying, shouting and for a moment my mind went completely blank,” Sherpa said. The lady could not say what the exact time was but insisted that it must have been around 2am or so.
She lived in the five-storeyed concrete building which along with a cluster of few more wooden structures, some of them two-storeyed, made up the market area.
Just beside the concrete building, Sherpa saw flames leaping “from somewhere around a garment shop” on the ground floor. “I remember there was more smoke than fire at that time.” For a moment, she thought the blaze could be controlled as the fire tenders had arrived and a lot of volunteers had reached the spot. That help had come comforted the residents but only for a moment.
The situation changed in a flash when gas cylinders burst. “I heard a cylinder burst. I think I heard two cylinders burst and the flames leaped high into the sky and the blaze suddenly seemed unmanageable,” said Sherpa.
With the fire virtually uncontrollable because of the wooden structures, people focussed on saving the concrete building where Sherpa lived.
Fire tenders were being filled with water stored by the hotels. At this moment, Sherpa saw her concrete building go up in flames. Nothing worthwhile could be salvaged because the building was one of the first few structures to go up in flames. As her building caught fire, a strong wind that blew from east to west further complicated matters.
“The wind blew from east to west and this fanned the flames towards the wooden structure,” said another eyewitness Sonam Bhutia.
It was probably because of the wind that about half a dozen shops which lie between NB Singh Road and NH55 were also razed to the ground.
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