Pics: Sphoorty Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jul 29: A canteen-cum-laundry shop located in Felix Pai Bazar near Market Road in the city was gutted on Wednesday July 29 morning. It is guessed that the person manning the laundry shop had forgotten to switch off the iron box, as a result of which, a fire was started. However, the actual cause of fire could not be established.

Clothes, LPG cylinders, electrical wiring, refrigerator, gas stove, tables and chairs of the canteen besides utensils and other items were reduced to ashes in the incident. The total loss due to fire is estimated at Rs 70,000.

The fire seems to have spread slowly through out the night, but it was noticed only after it was seen that thick smoke was billowing from the shop on Wednesday July 29 morning.

Under the directions of H S Varadarajan, chief fire officer and C Basavanna, regional fire officer, district fire officer U Jaya led the fire brigade team in the morning and succeeded in dousing the flames and stopping it from spreading to other buildings in the area, where buildings are densely located in a congested area and therefore pose hazards for the dousing operations.