Srinagar, Aug 16: A devastating blaze turned joy of a family of Basant Bagh here into sorrow on today morning. Besides their house, ornaments and clothes of two sisters who are scheduled to be married soon, were gutted.
Officials of Fire and Emergency Services received distress call at 5.30 am from Basant Bagh seeking help for dousing fire.
“The blaze fire broke out in the wee hours and we immediately informed Fire and Emergency Services,” said locals of Basant Bagh.
Chaos and confusion prevailed in the area as they apprehended that fire would engulf adjoining houses in the congested locality.
Amid chaos, the inhabitants rushed out of their houses and shifted their belongings to safer places. Several fire-tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire. Local youth also joined the firefighting operation.
“Due to intense flames, we could not save wedding clothes, gold and other valuables of our neighbor. However, we tried our best to pave way for fire tenders to reach the spot without any delay,” said a group of local youth, who were consoling the victim family.
Some neighboring women fainted as they saw the house in flames.
“After so much hard work of several years, our neighbor had earned money and was scheduled to organize the marriage ceremony of his two daughters. Today, he lost everything to fire and the two would-be-brides are seeing their dreams being shattered,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a local.
Bashir Ahmad Shah, Deputy Director, Fire and Emergency Services told Greater Kashmir said that top floor of the house was damaged in the fire.
He added that the family had kept most of the wedding goods including clothes, ornaments and other products in the same floor for the scheduled marriage which got damaged in the incident.
“We reached the spot immediately after receiving information about the fire incident. We pressed scores of men and machinery into service to control the fire,” he said.
He added that besides men and machinery, the local hydrant was also used to boost the fire fighting operation.
“We started our operations first to ensure that no human being is trapped. Our priority was to rescue trapped persons, if any. Luckily, all family members had moved out safely from the affected structures,” he said.
“We started our operation quickly to douse the fire. The area is congested and it was challenge to control the fire before it could have damaged more structures,” he said while replying to a query.
The fire fighting operations continued for hours while the cooling operation was going on till afternoon.
An official said that a team of officials from district administration visited the affected family.
Meanwhile, locals said that Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh was scheduled to host the guests in the first week of September as a part of marriage ceremony of his two daughters.
Locals appealed the Lieutenant Governor led administration to help the affected family at this crucial juncture.