Just a week before Deepawali, the fire officials were on their toes on Saturday as fire broke out at two places in Dehradun — a shop in Moti Bazar and a residential house in Race Course. A fire service officer said that they had a hard time fighting the blaze at both the places.
A bakery known as Mohan Bakery in Moti Bazar was gutted as fire broke out there around 9 am on Saturday, triggering panic among the traders. Dehradun fire station officer Shiv Prasad Mamgai said, “We lost no time in rushing two fire tenders to the incident site. I also reached the place immediately. The flame was intense. So two more fire tenders were called. It took around one and half hour to put out the blaze. However, initially we faced difficulty as smoke engulfed the place. We ensured that the flame did not spread to the neighbouring shops,” he said.
He further said that no one was injured, but the goods kept in the bakery worth lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes in the blaze. The blaze might have been caused by a gas leakage, said the fire officer. The bakery owner was yet to submit details of the loss till the time the report was filed.
In the other incident, fire broke out at around 3 pm in a residential house of one Manmohan Singh in Race Course. Mamgai said that upon being informed, they had rushed four fire tenders to douse the flame, adding that they had to struggle hard with the leaping flame before it was put out.
Shoes kept in the house to be transported to shop were burnt out completely. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, though a preliminary enquiry said that short circuit might have caused it, he added.