Sheeri: A newly constructed residential house was reduced to ashes and property worth lakhs of rupees turned into rubble when a fire broke out mysteriously in Sheeri village in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Wednesday.
The house owner Mohammad Latief Rather son of Ghulam Mohammad Rather of Sheeri and his family was luckily not present in the house.
Witnesses said that the fire broke out under mysterious circumstances from the rooftop of the residential house which was made up of plywood and tin due to which the fire spread quickly besides gas cylinder also exploded.
“As people raised alarm after witnessing fire flames erupting from the rooftop of the residential house, locals tried to extinguish the fire but it went out of control spreading in the entire house in a jiffy. The fire tenders were called but till the fire tenders reached Sheeri from Baramulla, the fire destroyed the entire house and caused extensive damage in which property worth lakhs of rupees was destroyed,” the witness said.
Locals joined by Army had already started fighting operations till the fire tenders reached the spot and controlled the fire however the entire hutment was razed to the ground in the fire.
People of the Sheeri Narwav area which is comprised of 40 villages have been demanding a fire station for the last 10 years from several years but successive regimes failed to provide a fire station to the huge area where incidents of fire often cause massive destruction due to non-availability of fire tenders.
Locals have demanded compensation and rehabilitation for poor family.
Recently, Deputy Directorate General Fire & Emergency Services has sought identification of land for the establishment of various fire stations which include Sheeri and 12 other locations but nothing seems to happen on the ground.
