Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Feb 2: After an old house near Sai Centre in the town caught fire accidentally on Monday February 1 evening, fire raged violently for sometime and threatened to spread to neighbouring buildings. However, alert youngsters from the locality worked together to control the fire before it could inflict large scale damage.

A few old houses owned by Hotel Diplomat owner are located in this area. One of these houses was occupied by Kannan, who reportedly hails from Kerala. Kannan, who works as a security guard of the hotel, it is said, is deaf. He lives here alone, and cooks food by using firewood, locals said.

Kannan had closed the doors of his house and had gone away on Monday evening, when flames leaped out of the hearth and the old wooden beams and pieces supporting the tiled roof were enveloped in fire soon thereafter. Within minutes fire began to spread ferociously. Locals and shopkeepers functioning nearby noticed smoke billowing out of the building and rushed there. Dinakar Shetty, who operates a juice centre nearby, led the people in controlling the fire by pouring water on the flames. Fire brigade, which was told about the fire rushed to the spot and completely extinguished the fire that had been controlled by then. All the items inside the house barring clothes in one of the rooms turned into ashes in this fire.

A number of kittens which were inside the house survived the fire. Fire officer, Bharat Kumar, rescued the kittens which had become frightful, and released them outside the house.

A huge building lines up the building that was gutted now. As the local youth acted promptly to douse the fire, it did not spread to the neighbouring building. As such, a huge fire tragedy in the making was averted because of prompt action by locals.