Statesman News Service
MALDA, 8 MARCH: At least 45 dwellings were reduced to ashes in a devastating fire at Baijanathpur under Harishchandrapur police station area of Malda district today.
The local Forward Bloc MLA Mr Tajimul Hussain, however, said that more than 100 dwellings were lost in the fire that raged for over four hours in the area.
According to the MLA from the area, a woman and child of the locality were missing since the fire. The Malda ADM, Mr Kajal Banerjee, however, said the administration did not have nay such information.
According to the ADM, the district administration has started distributing relief among the victims. “The victims are being provided two days’ food and clothes as well. They have been given tarpaulins for temporary shelter”, the ADM added.
According to a victim Dulera Bibi, who lost Rs 10,000 in the fire, “The money was stashed in the house. The fire destroyed everything in my house including the money”. Several students lost their books in the fire. The fire also charged two goats. This apart, locals have suffered immense losses of property and belongings in the fire.
One fire tender from Chanchal tried to combat the fire but failed owing to the intensity. Expressing unhappiness with the lack of support in fighting the fire, the MLA Mr Hussain alleged that neither the fire department nor the district officials responded in time.
It is learnt that the fire started when a local was disposing oven ashes in the area. Gusts of wind blew the embers of the oven ash to the thatched roof of a dwelling which soon caught fire. The wind spread the fire before the locals could douse it.
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