Fire at grocery shop in Zirakpur's Lohgarh

Zirakpur, October 30

A fire broke out at a grocery shop near the Lohgarh junction on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway under the Zirakpur flyover on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. Goods worth lakhs were gutted in the fire that erupted around 12:30 am.

Firemen received a call at 1:18 am and rushed to the spot. Two fire tenders from Zirakpur and one each from Dera Bassi and Panchkula reached there. It took firemen an hour to bring the blaze under control.

The shop owner, Sumit Kumar Mittal, claimed that products worth Rs15 to Rs20 lakh had been reduced to ashes. He added that he had freshly stocked the store in view of the festival season.

Firemen, however, said they heard the sound of bursting of firecrackers at the site. The shopkeeper claimed that the firecrackers were the leftovers of Diwali last year.

The shopkeeper, who has been running the establishment for the past 15 years, said, he closed the shop as usual and went home on Thursday night. At 12.30 am, he received a call about the fire in the shop. On reaching the spot, he saw smoke emanating from inside.

Residents here feared that if the fire had not been brought under control, it could have spread to about two dozen shops and two banks. — TNS