30 roadside shops gutted in major fire mishap near Kondagattu hill shrine in Jagtial district

JAGTIAL

A huge quantity of toys and puja materials worth around several lakhs were reduced to ashes in a major fire that gutted around 30 roadside shops near the Kondagattu hill shrine in Mallial mandal of Jagtial district late on Saturday night. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident.

The fire mishap is believed to have been caused by a short-circuit. It is suspected that the acrobatic feats of a pack of ferocious monkeys on a power line led to its snapping, resulting in the short-circuit.

The fire broke out at a roadside shop at around 11 p.m. and the flames rapidly spread to the nearby shops abutting the Karimnagar-Jagtial highway, destroying property.

On noticing the blaze, locals alerted the fire brigade over phone. According to sources, a fire tender from Jagtial while on its way to the fire mishap site reportedly developed a snag midway.

Fire tenders from Dharmapuri and Karimnagar reached the spot and put out the flames, sources added. The injured were shifted to a local school in the early hours of Sunday. They were provided food, groceries and clothes at the temporary shelter.

The fire destroyed the entire stock of toys and puja materials, leaving us devastated, rued a vendor, whose roadside makeshift shop was completely gutted. “Had the fire tender arrived early, we would have been spared from huge loss of property,” she said crying.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay, who is in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur in connection with the DGPs’ meeting, spoke to Jagtial Collector B. Satya Prasad over phone and enquired about the fire mishap. He asked the district authorities to extend all possible support to those affected.