Jammu: The once-bustling Shiv Market near Jammu Railway Station presented a picture of devastation on Monday morning, with a large portion of the four-decade old market reduced to charred remains.
Burnt shop structures, twisted sheets of metal and heaps of debris lay scattered across the premises, where traders had been conducting business until the previous evening.
The acrid smell of burnt goods lingered in the air as shopkeepers sifted through the wreckage, trying to assess the extent of the damage and salvage whatever little remained.
For many traders, the sight was difficult to comprehend.
Around 40 shops dealing in dry fruits, blankets, shawls, clothes and readymade garments had been gutted, leaving behind little more than ashes and damaged structures.
The fire, which broke out late Sunday night, spread rapidly through the congested market, fuelled by winds. The estimated losses were expected to run into crores of rupees.
“We had built our businesses through years of hard work, but everything has been reduced to ashes in a single night. We do not know where to begin or how we will recover from these losses,” Ashok Kumar, a shopkeeper, said.
Kumar, who has been working in the market for nearly two decades, said the destruction had put the livelihoods of hundreds of people at risk.
“We have families and children to feed. If our shops are gone, how will we earn our livelihood? Around 300 workers depend on the businesses here. Their families will also suffer because of this fire,” he said.
While some shopkeepers had rushed to the market during the night after receiving calls about the fire, others arrived in the morning.
“The flames were spreading so quickly that we could not save much. Workers came here during the night and tried their best to take out the goods, but the fire was too intense,” Mohan, another trader, said.
He said they had lost four shops in the blaze, with all the goods reduced to ashes.
Traders also pointed to the market’s narrow access lanes, which they said made firefighting difficult. Fire tenders were deployed to contain the blaze, with personnel approaching the affected area from the rear side.
The loss has come at a particularly difficult time for traders, with the festive season approaching and business usually receiving a boost from the steady movement of passengers at the nearby railway station. Several shopkeepers also depend on the flow of pilgrims travelling to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi for their business.
“We were hoping for good sales during the festive season. The railway station is nearby, and the market usually sees a good number of customers. Many of us also depend on pilgrims visiting Mata Vaishno Devi. Now, after this fire, we do not know how we will make up for the losses,” Raj Kumar, another shopkeeper, said.
Bittu Sharma said the fire was so massive that if the fire brigade had arrived on time, much of this damage could have been prevented.
“The fire brigade arrived around one-and-a-half hours later. The situation was terrible when we saw it at night,” he said, adding that workers rushed to the market during the night and made desperate attempts to retrieve merchandise but were unable to save much because of the intensity of the flames.
Sharma said he had returned to his shop after learning about the fire at 11 pm and found the market in a devastating condition.
BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa, who visited the scene during the night hours amid fire-fighting operation, said there is a large scale destruction as almost the entire market has bore the brunt of the fire.
The traders’ union president Vishva Mitra said the scale of the destruction indicated substantial financial losses, with preliminary estimates suggesting that property worth crores of rupees may have been destroyed.
“Our entire livelihood depends on these shops. We had invested our savings in the business and stocked goods for sale. Seeing everything reduced to ashes is heartbreaking. We do not know how we will recover from such a huge loss,” he said.
With their shops reduced to ashes and livelihoods shattered, the affected shopkeepers made a fervent appeal to the government to provide a comprehensive relief package to help them rebuild their businesses and get their lives back on track.
The traders urged the administration to assess the losses on priority, provide adequate compensation and extend assistance for the reconstruction of damaged shops, saying government support was crucial to help them overcome the crisis and resume their livelihoods.
