Patiala: 51 shops, seven vehicles burnt in fire near Gurudwara Kesgarh Sahib

PATIALA: In a tragic incident, a total fifty-one shops and seven vehicles were burnt in a fire that took place near Gurudwara Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib Division of Ropar district. The incident took place in the wee hours of Friday at around 3.40 am.
The Ropar district administration had formed a four-member committee to probe the reasons behind the fire and submit the report within in 15-days. Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner also informed that the compensation will be announced within two days to the victims who had faced monetary loss after their shops were burnt. The four-member committee comprise its head ADC Ropar, SDM Anandpur Sahib, and Executive Officer and a PSPCL official.
According to information, the fire spread after a cylinder in one of the shops got a blast. As the flames went into the air the speedy winds further spread the fire to neighboring shops leaving them gutted within hours. The fire further reached up to the vehicle parking where seven vehicles including two tippers, a Bolero Jeep, two cars and two scooters were also burnt to ashes.
In the morning the district officials claimed that number of shops were more than sixty however later in the evening they found there were total 51 shops including 22 shops under Municipal Council and 29 shops under the control of SGPC were burnt to ashes.
“We are investigating into the matter but it is learned that short circuit was a major reason behind the fire after which one of the affected shops witnessed a cylinder blast. The fire spread due to winds and other shops were also gutted in the fire. Some vehicles were also burnt. The fire brigades reached within half an hour from Nangal fire station”, said SDM Anandpur Sahib Kanu Garg.
It is however learned that fire brigades reached two hours after the fire incident took place leaving a number of shops gutted in the fire. Most of these shops were being run on a rented land of the Gurudwara. The fire tenders from Nangal fire station were called to douse the flames and it took around two hours to extinguish the fire with the help of 10 fire brigades.
Ropar deputy commissioner Sumit Jarangal, said, “The probe committee has been formed while by Monday we would submit the list to CM office about the number of shopkeepers who have been affected by the incident and needed to be compensated. No causality was reported as none of the shopkeepers were present at the site when the fire took place. Around 10 fire tenders were called from Nangal and within one and a half hour the flames were doused. The situation at present is under control”.
"I had faced huge loss amounting in lakhs of rupees. The fire brigade reached too late despite they were informed about the fire in the wee hours. Had they reached in time such a huge loss could have been avoided and the far away from shops could have been saved. It never happened in the past that fire gutted almost all the shops situated on the road near Gurudwara Sahib,” said, Gurinder Singh, a shopkeeper.