Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, MARCH 18
IN a major fire, properties worth around Rs 9 lakh belonging to 13 families from Kirha village at 3 ½ mile were reduced to ashes on the midnight of Monday.
Of the 13 houses burnt, eight families were labourers working at the saw mill located at 3 ½ Mile and five families were staying in a rented house belonging to three land owners. The homeless victims are completely in the dark on the cause of the fire. Their ignorance further heightened by the fact that the fire was said to have broken out at midnight, when everyone was fast asleep. But what the victims and neighbors did notice was that, the fire brigade only reached the spot when the fire had almost burnt it itself out after reducing the houses to ashes. The delay in the response was put down to ‘technical error’ in receiving the information by the fire brigade.
For Ethel, one of the inconsolable victims, the fire was a narrow escape from death for her family.
Narrating the incident intermittently interrupted with a flood of tears, Ethel said she along with her husband Nzanbemo Patton and 5 children just managed to save themselves as the fire crept up on their house when they were all asleep. They had no time to save any belongings as the only thought in their minds was to get out of the house safely with their children from their home on fire.
Y Lotha, a policeman on duty at the Diphupar Police Station, suspects that a short circuit could have triggered the fire. He added that investigations are on to substantiate if indeed a short circuit caused the fire.
Relief assistance to the victims has also been delayed since the area does not fall under a GB or village chairman. However, the OC Diphupar Police Station, K Angami said after proper enquiries and investigations are conducted some benefits will be granted to the victims. The victims are mostly mill labourers living in rows of rented shelters close to the boundary of a saw mill.
