Six houses gutted in fire, victims demand compensation

SRINAGAR: A mother and her six-year-old child lost their lives while property including six residential houses and a shop gutted in a massive fire that broke out on Sunday night in Srinagar’s Haft Chinar.

The deceased were identified as Ajmeera Bano, 35, wife of Ghulam Mohmmad Sheikh and her 6-year-old son Abbas Ahmad Sheikh, both the residents of Haft Chinar.

As per local residents and officials, blaze broke out in a shop around 11 pm on Sunday and engulfed adjacent six residential houses.

Mehraj Ahmad Sheikh whose house was gutted in the fire told Kashmir Reader that Ajmeera and her son lost their lives as they were asleep when the incident occurred.

“We don’t know the cause of fire yet,” he said.

He said the fire brigade reached the spot to douse flames immediately and brought fire under control around 2:30 am. But within a few hours, blaze rendered him along with five families homeless, he said.

“These families did not have any source of income to build the new houses,” said another resident Ghulam Nabi sheikh while seeking help from administration for the victim families.

He demanded that the government should provide immediate compensation to all the affected families and grant them permission for construction of new houses.

The houses gutted belonged to Ghulam Mohmmad Sheikh, Abdul Hamid Sheikh, Tariq Ahmad Sheikh, Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh, Mehraj Ahmad Sheikh and Basheer Ahmad Sheikh.

Deputy Director Fire and Emergency Services Department Bashir Ahmad Shah told Kashmir Reader the fire broke out from the shop and spread to residential houses. He said six houses were gutted in the fire incident.

“The fire services vehicles rushed to the spot immediately to douse the flames and two persons including mother and her son died in the fire incident,” he said

Shah said that the area where the fire incident took place is congested that is why the fire spread within no time.

ARIF RASHID