Fire razes congested residential block in Dimapur

May 10, 2024 13 Views No Comment

Around hundred families rendered homeless

Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 10

In another fire incident in Dimapur, around a hundred families were rendered homeless. The fire, which started around 9 PM, May 8, razed through a small but densely populated tenement block of mostly tin-roof bamboo structures located in Kevichusa colony, adjacent to the Burma Camp bazaar. Suspected to have sparked by an electrical fault, the fire spread rapidly consuming everything in its path. The tenement consisted of over 130 rooms occupied by 98 families. It also included a scrap shop and a warehouse for pottery.

One of the victims, Odit Das, said that his family could salvage nothing except his personal documents. “All I could do was getting my educational documents to safety. My parents could salvage no personal belongings. My personal savings amounting around 15 thousand was also lost to the flames,” said Odit, a student of B Com (4th semester), Unity College. He was also worried how he would prepare for his semester exam scheduled on May 10.

As tenants, his family was paying a fixed monthly tax of Rs 2000 and had been living in the now razed tenement for over two decades.

The Fire and Emergency Services personnel had a harrowing time navigating through a narrow approach road to the site of the fire. According to one fire fighter, the main approach road, of barely a hundred meters, was too narrow to allow room for not more than one fire truck to approach the site. In total, 8 fire trucks were pressed into action— 5 from Fire Station (Central), 2 from Fire Station (West) and 1 from Chümoukedima. It took over three hours to control the flames from spreading to the nearby buildings. There was no report of any human casualty.