Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): Three Bangladeshi nationals were charred to death in a massive fire incident which gutted at least five houseboats in the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Srinagar, officials said on Saturday. Official sources said that the fire broke out in the wee hours of Saturday in one of the houseboats near Ghat No 9 along the Boulevard in Dalgate area of Srinagar.
The flames later spread to other houseboats in the vicinity engulfing them too, an official said. Confirming the incident, an officer of the Department of Fire and Emergency told TV Bharat that "We received information this morning that the houseboat Safina parked in the lake near Ghat No. 9 has caught fire." He further said that immediately after the alert, a team of the Fire and Emergency Department reached the spot and dousing operations were launched.
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"It has spread to three to four houseboats and no casualty has been reported so far,” the official said. The official said that the cause of the fire is not yet known. While officials initially said that no loss of life or injury was reported in the incident, a police official said that three Bangladeshi nationals died in the fire incident. The identity of the deceased was not immediately known.
Kashmir House Boats Association President Manzoor Pakhtun said that five house boats as well as residential huts were burnt to ashes. He further requested the administration of Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha to take immediate action to rehabilitate the dwellers of these gutted houseboats. "We have been told that the fire in these houseboats was caused by a short circuit. I would like to bring to the notice of the management that the power transformers in the lake are quite old and perhaps the load on them is increasing," Pakhtun said.
A video of the fire incident is also being widely shared. In the video, the houseboats can be seen engulfed by massive flames with many of them reduced to ashes. Pertinently, the fire incidnet in the Dal Lake came hours after a three-storey building was gutted in another fire incident in the Humama area on Srinagar outskirts. A firefighter was injured in the fire incident.
