HimVani
Mandi: Twenty-three shops and five residential houses were gutted in a devastating fire, which broke out in Chauhata Bazaar in Mandi on Wednesday night. The estimated loss caused to the property was assessed at over Rs. 2.47 crore and no loss to life reported so far.
The fire, which started in a cloth shop and raged for about five hours, is suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit. Firefighters battled the flames for more than an hour with little success. More firefighters were rushed from the BBMB, Pandoh, Sundernagar, NTPC Kol Dam and Bilaspur. The fire was extinguished around 5 am.
Subhashish Panda, Deputy Commissioner, Mandi and M. Chander Shekhar, Superintendent of Police alongwith other officers of the administration and police jawans rushed to the incident site to supervise the relief and rescue operation. A relief of Rs. 10,000 to each affected was provided and magisterial inquiry has been ordered to inquire into the cause of incident. SDM, Sadar has been appointed as Inquiry Officer.
In a similar incident in Rekong Peo on Sunday, November 5, seven shops and property worth lakhs of rupees went down in ashes
It took about two-hours for the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) men to fight the blaze that brought down the three-storey building, housing the seven shops.
