nA major fire broke out at Nathupur village in Gurugram here in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
The fire engulfed 700 huts of which 500 shanties were completely gutted.
The cause of the fire is suspected to be electrical short-circuit. Fire personnel evacuated residents from the huts and it took them about five hours to control the fire. No casualties or injuries have been reported.
According to the fire officials they received the fire incident call at around 2.08 am.
They suspected that the fire incident took place due to illegal electric supply which cause electric short-circuit in the area and it spread rapidly to other huts. Soon the entire area was engulfed in flames. The residents left their valuables behind and ran at the safe places to save their lives.
IS Kashyap, assistant divisional fire safety officer said, around 15 fire tenders were reached the place and brought the situation under control in five hours. Fifteen fire-tenders from Sector-29 fire station, Udyog Vihar fire station, Sector-37 fire station, Bhim Nagar fire station and from the DLF were rushed to the spot.
"Teams of several fire personnels were deployed in the fire-fighting and evacuation operations. Most probably the incident was caused by an electric short-circuit," Kashyap said.
"There was some property loss to residents but no death or injuries were caused. The residents are daily wage labourers working at building construction sites,” he said.
"Timely rescue operation led by the fire personnels saved hundreds of lives. It is expected that hundreds of people having living in illegal huts erected by local residents on a 4-5-acre land at Nathupur village for the last several years. These two story huts are covered with plastic covers, tarpaulin sheets, wood and bamboo. These materials were another reason for the fire to spread across the area very rapidly," Kayshap added.