Fire at Barwala main market; 10 shops gutted, goods worth Rs 40-50 lakh destroyed

“Around 9.45 pm, I saw fumes coming out from one of the garment shops, and we rushed in to find that it had engulfed adjacent shops as well. I dialled 101, and was connected to Kurukshetra fire station. They asked me to call the Panchkula station. Then I tried from someone else’s phone, and was connected to Kalka station, following which the fire tenders were sent,” said Gautam, who runs a general store, at the nearby market.

[related-post]

As per the fire office, Panchkula, they were intimated about the incident at 11.35 pm, and they immediately sent three fire tenders. By then, fire tenders from Dera Bassi, which is 10 km from Barwala, and Kalka, 30 km away, also reached the spot.

The victims alleged that a lot of crucial time was wasted during the process of making calls. “The incident was reported around 10 pm, and the fire tenders reached at 11.30 pm. By then, all the 10 shops were engulfed in fire. We could not save anything. A large number of local people had gathered, and we tried to douse the fire, using water, but all in vain,” said Phool Chand, whose garment shop was burnt down to ashes.

“There is some problem with the fire emergency number 101. In some previous incidents too, when a person called, it connected them to some other station. Even if they made a call from Ramgarh, it reached Kalka fire station,” said fire officer S S Malik, adding that all the fire stations keep each other informed.

It took around two hours to control the fire. However, no casualty was reported. Even as local people tried to control the fire, the residents whose shops were located behind the main market, tried frantically to save their goods. The shops which were gutted largely included shops selling readymade garments, shoes, cosmetics, and one selling kitchen utensils.

“Logon ne jam ke loot-maar ki (People took advantage of the situation, and looted the goods),” said Phool Chand, who runs a general store, and spent the whole night on the road guarding his goods.

“As the fire was spreading, I opened the shop, and began taking things out. Some people rushed for help, but few of them allegedly ran away stealing the goods. Though the fire tenders did not reach my shop, I suffered a loss worth thousands, with goods stolen,” added Chand.

The market is built on the panchayat land, and the shop owners pay a monthly rent. For almost all of them, the shop was the only source of income. After Friday night’s incident, they have been left “shocked and helpless”.

“Shops were our only source of income. We were able to do business of around Rs 8,000 daily, but now it will take around four months or more to reconstruct the shops. Some of us will have to take loans. Some goods which we managed to save from fire are not worth selling,” said Rajesh Kumar, whose cosmetic shop was burnt down. He had recently spent over Rs 1 lakh on refurbishing the shop.

Demand for a separate fire tender for Barwala

Deputy Commissioner Vivek Atray and local BJP MLA Gian Chand Gupta visited the spot and met the shop owners. The residents lamented that their demand for keeping a fire tender stationed at Barwala has not been taken seriously by the authorities. “There was a major fire in one of the shops in February, and at that time too, the fire tenders reached late. We have been demanding that a fire tender be stationed here. But nothing has been done,” said Devi Chand.