Kundapur: Late night fire burns down house, loss put at over Rs 10 lac

Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Apr 2: A house located near Surgeon Hospital at Ankadakatte, Koteshwar near here was reduced to ashes in a fire which raged uncontrolled for long at around midnight on Tuesday April 1. The house in question was owned by Sumati, while her younger brothers, Ravikumar and Pratap, were living there.

The brothers were suddenly awakened out of their slumber at around 1.30 am on April 2 due to cracking sounds created by things which caught fire, and items which fell down from above. They saw that the room to the left side of the house was engulfed by fire. They immediately alerted neighbours, and with their help, began the task of dousing the fire by pouring water on it.

However, they could not contain the fire, which spread at high speed. The fire brigade was called thereafter by the locals. The firemen, who rushed to the spot, succeeded in bringing the fire under control, but not before heavy damages were inflicted. Three large-sized and three smaller almirahs, valuables and gold ornaments inside them, documents, insurance bonds, Rs 60,000 in cash, title deeds, passbooks, utensils, mobile phones, electronic items etc were found to have been consumed by the fire. While loss due to burning of items has been put at Rs 4,65,000, the total loss including the house, has been over Rs 10 lac.

Girish, owner of G K Studio here, and Narasimha Vittalwadi, a social worker, played a major role in organizing assistance and summoning the fire brigade. Girish said he had never seen a catastrophe of such a magnitude in his life so far, and that the fire was so strong that smoke from it was choking them. He said that three gas cylinders and other most necessary things were shifted outside by them first, and that they saw the currency notes burning down in front of their eyes.

Sumati termed the incident as unfortunate. She said that all their clothes were gutted in the incident, and that they are compelled to continue to wear the same set of clothes till alternative arrangements are made. She added that they now find it hard even to arrange for food and stay. With tears in her eyes, she expressed the hope that the government will extend her help to come out of this unforeseen shock.

Koteshwar gram panchayat village accountant, Jagadish, revenue officer, Anand Damle, village assistant, Krishna, and health officer from Kundapur, Dr Rama Rao, visited the spot and assured Sumati of initiating necessary steps. The police too went to the spot and collected information.

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