Mir Farhat

SRINAGAR, Dec 30: In a major fire in Srinagar’s Hazratbal area, around 30 residential houses were gutted, rending 55 families homeless in freezing winter.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Shah said fire broke out in a house at Dhobi Ghat locality in the vicinity of Holy Hazratbal shrine perched on the banks of Dal Lake around 2:30 am and spread to adjoining residential houses.
Shah ruled out sabotage by any person in causing the fire which left 300 people homeless. “The cause of the fire is being investigated by the police and administration. Fifty five families have been affected by the fire in which 30 structures, including 10 single storey houses, four double storey houses, two boats and five wooden structures were gutted”, he added.
Shah said property estimated to be worth crores was damaged in the inferno, which left no known casualties.
Wailing and moaning women were seen sitting on the debris of their houses. “We are homeless; our whole property has turned into ashes within an hour. Everything, bedding, gold ornaments, kitchen utensils and whatever we had inherited have gone,” said a group of women, sitting on the soot left from the burnt houses.
The families said they managed to get out of their homes uninjured, but everything else appeared ruined. “Everything’s black, covered in soot,” said Zoya Begum, a fire victim.
Fire victims said firefighters brought the fire under control, but not before 30 homes were destroyed.
The Deputy Commissioner said they have pumped immediate relief to the fire victims and arranged their temporary shelters.
“Each affected family will be provided a relief of Rs. 5000 in addition to the Rs. 9000 from Red Cross. They will be sheltered in nearby schools till they are shifted to other places,” said Shah.
In North Kashmir’s Kupwara district, a residential house was gutted last night.
Police officials said fire broke out in the residential house of Sowkat Ali Khan of village Shadipora.
“But, timely action from administration prevented the fire from spreading to adjacent houses. The house was damaged in the two-hour long fire, but there was no known casualty reported,” the officials said.