BARAMULLA: Twelve houses, four other structures were gutted completely, several others received partial to minor damage in a night long fire incident in north Kashmir’s Baramulla town on Thursday that left twenty nine families homeless.
Officials said that fire broke out due to the LPG leakage from one of the residential houses in congested Sheikh-Colony Noorbagh area of Baramulla on Thursday late evening and it engulfed other houses in minutes before fire tenders from Baramulla and other nearby areas reached the spot to douse the flames.
They said that over twenty nine families lost their shelters and other property worth crores of rupees. “As we received the information of fire from the colony, several fire tenders from different areas rushed to the spot to douse the flames, and it took long time to control the fire, because of congestion in the area, but somehow we control the fire and no one was hurt in the incident” an official of the fire service department said. He said that several people including men from the army, police and local people helped them in their effort.
The officials said that deputy commissioner Baramulla Bopinder Kumar and SSP Baramulla Rayees Mohammad Bhat also visited the spot and they monitored the rescue operation on spot till the fire was completely controlled.
The blasts of LPG cylinders during the fire increased the problem for firefighters for a long time, the victims’ families who lost everything were seen crying while the flames and smoke was seen from several kilometres away.
On Friday morning, the divisional commissioner Kashmir P K Pole along with other officials accompanied by DC Baramulla and SSP Baramulla visited the spot and took stock of the situation. He directed the officials to take immediate steps for the rehabilitation of victim families.
The victim families were already sent to safer places and administration also arranged food and other needy items for the victims, while officials of the revenue department were seen collecting the reports of damaged property.
Meanwhile, advisor to the lieutenant governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan also visited Noorbagh Baramulla on Friday afternoon and distributed relief rupees 50 thousand each among the 29 victim families, besides other material.
He was accompanied by deputy commissioner Baramulla Bopinder Kumar and other officials, he directed officers to cover victim families under SDRF relief and PMAY Housing Scheme.
He took the first hand appraisal of the situation during which the fire victims appraised the advisor about their condition besides discussing their issues and demands. The advisor gave a patient hearing and assured every kind of possible support shall be provided for their immediate rehabilitation. He also announced a one month free ration for all victim families.
Sheikh colony in Noorbagh area of Baramulla town is a highly congested area mostly inhabited by sanitation workers with the colony interiors being narrow that led fire fighters faced problems of reaching the actual spot on time.

Reader correspondent