Gangtok, Feb. 2: A blaze in
Rhenock Bazaar in East Sikkim this morning gutted 17 houses, which stood
cheek by jowl and had garment and tailor shops in the ground floors.
No deaths have
been reported. A home guard was injured while removing debris and two
residents suffered minor burns while making their escape from their
homes that were aflame. Fire service officials are yet to ascertain what
started the blaze that raged for nearly six hours.
A similar blaze had gutted 10 houses in the same bazaar in 2004.
Five fire tenders
were summoned from Gangtok, Pakyong, Singtam and Kalimpong in
neighbouring Darjeeling district. The flames that were first seen around
1.30am were doused around 7.30am today.
There is no fire
station in Rhenock as the government was unable to acquire land to build
the facility. Kalimpong, about 25km from Rhenock, is the closest to the
spot. The state capital Gangtok is 88km away.
The fire engines
from Kalimpong reached Rhenock about half an hour after the blaze
started but by then, the flames had spread to several buildings.
A Gangtok fire
service official said many of the 17 buildings in the small market area
were made of wood, and in the ground floors of all the buildings there
were textile shops or tailors’ outlets. Prakash Rai, the deputy fire
officer at Gangtok fire station, said it took a long time to douse the
fire as it spread rapidly because of the presence of combustible
material such as clothes, shoes and wood.
Residents Sanjiv Kumar, 50, and Ravi Agarwal, 26, suffered burns while trying to escape from their houses.
“I received the
information from the block development officer and rushed to the spot.
Seventeen houses were gutted in the fire and seven are partially
damaged,” said district collector Jitendra Singh Raje. “We are yet to
assess the monetary loss caused by the fire.”
The home guard injured while removing debris was identified as Jiwan Pradhan, 40.
Mohammed Waid, a
38-year-old tailor, said: “I heard people shouting. When I woke up, I
saw my shop on fire. Before I could do anything, my shop was gutted. I
could not save anything.”
Lata Sharma, 27,
who had opened a salon a few months back, was shattered after her shop
was burnt. “I stay in a village few kilometres away from the market
area. The horrific incident has left me nowhere. I am the only earning
member of the family. How will I re-build my salon?” Sharma asked.
Satya Narayan
Agarwal, 59, who lost his garment and shoe shop in the incident, said he
had suffered in the 2004 fire also. “I lost everything in 2004. This
incident has brought me back to the same position. I have to again start
from scratch.”
Sikkim chief
minister Pawan Chamling has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for
those whose houses were completely damaged, Rs 1 lakh for partial
damage and Rs 50,000 for injured persons.(TT)