Goods worth lakhs ruined in Ludhiana’s knitwear shop blaze

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 28

Two fire incidents were reported in the city on Friday night in which the owners faced loss of several lakh rupees. One incident took place at a two-storey shop in Wait Ganj and another in a house at Dugri Phase-1.

As per information, the first incident took place in a shop (Shivaye Knitwears). Since the shop was situated in a crowded place and a market full of encroachments, fire tenders faced tough times in dousing the flames. Firemen had to clear traffic and encroachments from the market to reach the destination.

Fire Brigade officials said due to the encroachments in the market, fire tenders had to crawl slowly to reach outside the house and they themselves had to get the road cleared of traffic. The fire, which broke out in the first floor of the shop, could be controlled by the firemen within one and a half hours.

Fireman Vijay Kumar said a short-circuit was being suspected to be the reason behind the fire that gutted a huge stock of knitwears.

Sources said initially the firemen tried to douse the flames by pouring water but due to its intensity they could not douse the flames. Meanwhile, shopkeepers of the market said the powercom department always failed to pay heed to the web of electricity cables, which often leads to a short-circuit. Even the incident occurred due to short circuit. They demanded that the department should settle these cables in such a way as fire incidents did not take place in future.

Meanwhile, a fire broke out in the first floor of a house at Dugri Phase-1. Fortunately, the fire was controlled by firemen within 15 minutes. The cause of the fire could not be ascertained.