20220807 15 dwellings of slum near Dwarka gutted in a blaze
India Aug 07 2022 “Building” “Houses”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
15 dwellings of slum near Dwarka gutted in a blaze
Updated: 2022-08-07
Nashik: At least 15 dwellings in the congested Sant Kabir Nagar slum, located near the Dwarka Chowk, in the city were completely gutted in a fire that broke out at 5 pm on Saturday.
However, there were no casualties in the incident as the slum dwellers rushed out of their homes within seconds of the fire breaking out.
Sanjay Bairagi, the station officer of Nashik Municipal Corporation’s main fire brigade depot at Shingada Talav, told TOI that the fire was triggered by the explosion of three LPG cylinders, that had been kept inside dwellings.
A total of 15 fire tenders were pressed into service — including 12 belonging to the NMC and three from other agencies and private firms — to put out the blaze in around 45 minutes.
“We suspect there was a leakage from one cylinder and someone must have lit a matchstick or lighter, after which the room caught fire and the cylinder exploded. The fire spread to other dwellings adjoining the first one, where two more cylinders exploded. However, we will carry out an audit to ascertain whether there were any other reasons,” Bairagi said.
The slum has over 500 dwellings, including some pucca structures and the rest made of wood and tin. The lanes of the slum are extremely congested. Barely one person can move at a time.
Babloo Khan, who was among the first in the slum to witness the fire outbreak, recalled that he was outside his shanty doing some work when he heard the ear-deafening explosion.
“Black smoke started bellowing from that shanty and some of us tried to douse it with the stored water that we had. But as it continued to spread, all of us hurriedly came out of that area,” he added.
The main NMC fire station is located less than a kilometre away from the slum, which enabled the fire tenders to reach the spot within a minute.
“The narrow lanes and the crowd gathered hindered our operations in taking the water pipes to the affected zone of the slum. But we managed to carry out the operations successfully,” said a fireman present at the spot.
Meanwhile, the police had to divert the traffic on the road near the slum.
Web Source: The Times of India