Baramulla, June 11: The Baramulla blaze which reduced 13 houses to ashes and rendered 31 families homeless on Thursday night left behind a trail of destruction.
The devastated family members were looking for the belongings beneath the ashes of their houses on Friday.
“The fire spread so fast that we were not able to save anything,” said Nazir Ahmad, a fire victim.
Fire emanated from a residential houses in Noor Bagh Mohalla of Baramulla town and soon spread to the neighbouring houses late Thursday evening.
The fire was so intense that in a jiffy, around 13 residential houses were completely gutted.
The fire victims said that the delay in the arrival of fire tenders proved disastrous for them.
They said that despite being just 100 yards away from the fire station Baramulla, the fire tenders arrived late and their was a considerable delay in starting the dousing of flames.
“The water pipes were not adequate in length and it took more than an hour to extinguish the fire,” the fire victims said.
Two of the victim families besides losing their houses and belongings also lost lakhs of rupees in cash that they had kept for the preparations of the weddings scheduled later this month.
Adnan Ahmad, another fire victim, said that he renovated his house recently by obtaining a loan from a bank.
“My dream have been shattered. I don’t know how will I repay the loan and look for my family’s rehabilitation at the same time,” he said. “If authorities will not come to our rescue, we will be completely devastated.”
However, the fire victims praised the role of Police and youth from old town Baramulla.
They said that the timely intervention of Police, especially SSP Baramulla and other Police officials besides youth from old town Baramulla played an important role in extinguishing the fire.