Several houses gutted at Marwari Patty area in Jorhat

A CORRESPONDENT

JORHAT: Over 37 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse an inferno that devastated a large part of the Marwari Patty area on Wednesday night. The fire razed several houses and some of the oldest shops in Jorhat town. The fire is yet to be completely put out with embers still smoking and one house still burning till the filing of this report.

As per district administration sources, the extent of destruction is yet to be fully ascertained. 10 shops and several houses were gutted which resulted in huge loss of property and goods.

Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Barman has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and has asked Additional Deputy Commissioner Damodar Barman, who is also the CEO of DDMA, Jorhat, to conduct the inquiry. As per the residents of the locality in which there were a number of commercial establishments, godowns and residences, the fire caught in one of the shops dealing with plastic materials at around 10 pm and immediately spread to nearby shops and buildings.

Over 35 fire tenders from IAF station, ONGC, NRL, were pressed into service with firefighters and SDRF having a tough time to control the fire and stop it from further speading. It took several hours to douse the blaze as the area was a congested one.

However, smoke was still coming from the debris throughout the day on Thursday, and firefighters were still working to completely extinguish the fire. Residents of the buildings that came under the fire and those from adjoining ones were evacuated by SDRF personnel with local people and even media persons too joining in. Large number of LPG cylinders were brought out from the affected places.

An excavator was used in the morning to break a portion of a building that was damaged by the fire to let firemen go inside it to extinguish the blaze. Senior district administration, police and DDMA officials were monitoring the situation.

A district administration official stated that as several shops had inflammable items like plastics, warm garments, canvas, polythene, deodorants, etc. the fire had spread fast and with the area being a congested one firefighters faced difficulties in reaching into the buildings behind the shops.

The official said that a short-circuit may have been the cause of fire or could be due to any other reason, which would be known later after investigation by the concerned departments and agencies.

The official stated that no loss of life has been reported and the administration had kept ambulances ready at the area to shift any person to hospital, if required. Power supply in the fire-hit and adjoining localities were disconnected and were yet to be restored.

Meanwhile, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa expressed grief over the incident of fire that resulted in loss of property to several people.

Also Read: Six houses gutted in fire at Naharkatia Amulapatti

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