KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, July 31: Three shops were gutted as a fire broke out at Sakchi market around midnight, triggering a sensation among the shop owners.
The fire occurred on the Muri line and the shops gutted include a mobile phone shop which was reduced into ashes.
Some people who stay at the marketplace first noticed thick smoke billowing out of one of the shops. Realising that a shop must be on fire, they mobilised support by shouting. Soon a large number of people gathered there and tried to douse the flame by pouring water.
In the meantime, someone informed the Golmuri-based government fire station. But by the time a fire tender reached there after half-an-hour time, three shops were gutted completely.
By that time owners of the adjoining shops had also reached the spot and had started evacuating stocks from their respective shops in apprehension that the razing fire would engulf their shops too. But the fire brigade prevented other shops from being razed.
The police said the exact reason behind the fire could not be known yet, but a short circuit is suspected of triggering the fire.
It may be mentioned here that there are over 2,000 shops in Sakchi market, most of them located on narrow lanes. The shopkeepers always remain concerned about any fire incident in the market as fire tenders cannot enter into all the lanes.
Loss of properties gutted in the fire is being estimated.
