Jamshedpur : In a fire mishap four shops were gutted in a fire at the Gudri market in Sonari, in the wee hours of Friday. As per the information two readymade garment shops and a fast-food outlet was reduced in ashes. The police claimed the fire was triggered by an electrical short-circuit while the local people suspected to be foul play. According to police, goods and properties worth over Rs 5 lakh were estimated to have been damaged in the fire in the four shops.
Before the fire-brigade had arrived at the spot, the local residents had tried to douse the flame by pouring water in bucket, but the efforts proved to be little.
Officer-in-charge, Sonari police station, Sanjiv Kumar, however, claimed it to be a case of electrical short-circuits.
According to police, goods and properties worth over Rs 5 lakh were estimated to have been damaged in the fire in the four shops.
“In all four shops have been gutted. More shops would have been affected if the local residents and the fire-brigades had not followed the precautionary measures to prevent the flame from spreading further,” said an official.Several theories are circulating in the air pertaining to the reason behind the accident but police have said that short circuit is the likely reason although thorough probe into the accident is being conducted.
A senior official of the administration said that most residential and commercial buildings in the city are extremely vulnerable to fire hazards, mainly in the absence of fire protection and extinguishing systems. Jugsalai, Sakchi, Mango, Pursuih and Baghbera stills lack fire safety facilities.Regarding the fire safety arrangements of the multi-storied buildings, he lamented that no public agency had ever physically inspected the fire fighting facilities of the tall buildings of both residential and commercial status.