Several business establishments were gutted in a devastating fire that broke out in New Market area of the town on Sunday.
According to eye witnesses, the fire started from Jagdish Cloth Stores, one of the oldest cloth shops of the town at around 5 am. The blaze aided by the early morning breeze quickly spread to other nearby shops engulfing them in no time.
Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal who has been camping in Dibrugarh visited the site of the incident and took stock of the damage. He directed officials to take immediate measures for relief and aid of the affected people.
According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) project officer Dipjyoti Hatikakati two other cloth stores and a godown were also gutted in the fire. Several other shops and residences in nearby buildings were also partially damaged in the fire.
“Three shops were fully damaged and one partially affected. The Jagdish cloth store was fully damaged in the fire. The assessment is being carried out to know the extent of damage. The cause of the fire is not yet known. State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) was pressed into service,” Hatikakati said.
However there were no reports of any injuries or death. The fire tenders have to combat ten hours to control the fire.
Dibrugarh MP Rameshwar Teli, MLA Prashanta Phukan, Dibrugarh deputy commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha, Dibrugarh SP Subashini Sankaran rushed to the spot and took stock of the damaged caused by the fire.
“We have lost everything in the fire. Till now we cannot access the damage but property worth crore were damaged in the fire. We don’t how the fire broke out. We are sleeping when the fire caught our shop,” said the owner of the Jagdish cloth store.
According to sources, in one of the godown huge stock of crackers were stored and due to that the fire damaged the other shops.
At least 15 fire tenders were pressed into service which battled for nearly ten hours to douse the inferno. Due to the congested road, the fire tenders had to face a tough time in reaching the spot.
