Eight families were rendered homeless after a devastating fire broke out in Gujandali, a village in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh and consumed their sprawling wooden house.
No casualty has been reported so far. However, the estimated loss is in crores as families could not save even their movable assets. The four-storeyed house comprising 20 rooms was the joint ancestral property of eight brothers.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur was quick to respond, and assured the families help in their time of crisis. “I have told deputy commissioner to provide needful help and also find out the cause of the fire," he said.
Superintendent of police Shimla Mohit Chawla, said the police suspects that a short-circuit caused the fire, which consumed the house before the eyes of its inhabitants. Local villagers rushed to help the family and managed to douse the raging flames before a fire tender could reach the place.
Eyewitnesses said it took more than three hours for the entire village to control the fire from spreading to the nearby areas, and by then the building was consumed by the blaze.
“It is shocking to know about the fire ahead of peak winters. The families had spent all their resources to build a decent living place over the years. This fire took barely some minutes to reduce the same into ashes with everything they had inside," said Sanjay Chauhan, a former Shimla mayor. " We are with the family in this hour of crisis and it's the duty of the government to provide them with the needed help. ”
This is the second major incident within a fortnight after a similar fire incident occurred at Deha, near Shimla, in which the owner, Ramesh Verma, was killed. He could not save himself even though he bravely helped the family members to vacate the building before the fire entrapped him inside in the early hours on November 26.
Verma was an employee at Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC) and owned 18 rooms of the two-storey palatial house with brother Bansi Lal. All members of the family were asleep when the fire spread and engulfed the entire house within minutes. Fire tenders could not reach the spot despite it being a little away from the main road. The police had cited short-circuit as the cause of fire in this case too.
Fear of fire in winter months
During winters, fire poses a great threat in Himachal Pradesh, since most of the houses are made of wood and local conditions during the winters force people to stay inside.
“In winters the families use heating systems, both electric appliances and their traditional means for heating. Most houses constructed with wood easily catch fire. Dousing the fire and sending fire tenders to nearby towns is also an issue as before these fire brigades manage to reach the spot, the property gets consumed by the blaze. There is also the problem of poor road connectivity,” admits Chawla, who stressed the need for alertness of families when they use heating appliances inside.
Two years back an entire village Keshena, near Rohru was razed to the ground in a fire during the winter months. In another incident, an 80-year-old woman died in a fire that consumed eight houses in a village Dungiyani of Chirgaon tehsil in April 2020. Two days later, seven houses were gutted in a fire rendering more than 10 families homeless at Shishtwari village in the same area.
A temple and six houses were also gutted in a fire in April 2020 in at Sistwari village. The fire was noticed around 4 am and it took only a few minutes for it spread. One person died and two others were injured in the incident.
Chief Minister, Jairam Thakur, whose own area has witnessed two incidents of fire a few days back, has appealed the people to stay alert to avoid fire incidents during winter months.
“Normally the people also stock firewood inside their houses, both for heating and cooking. The wood can catch fire easily. The blaze spreads quickly and causes huge loss to the properties including residential places" Thakur told Outlook.
