Fire destroys Lodhipura refrigerator shop and hits two homes in Nagpur, loss put at Rs 35.7 lakh

A large fire tore through a refrigerator and home appliances shop in Nagpur's crowded Lodhipura locality on Sunday morning, then spread to two houses standing beside it. No one died and no one was hurt, but goods and property worth Rs 35.7 lakh were lost, according to preliminary estimates.

The shop, Al Kausar Refrigeration, is near Geetanjali Talkies on CA Road, an address that one account also describes as Geetanjali Chowk on Central Avenue. It sold refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and other appliances. It is owned by three men, named in the accounts as Mohammad Ashfaq (also spelt Ashfaque), Mohammad Atique and Abdul Latique (also spelt Latif) Ansari. One account describes them as brothers.

Smoke was first seen coming from the shop at around 8.30 am, by one account, and the flames quickly took hold. Fire officers of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) put the time of the outbreak at about 8.47 am. The blaze soon covered the whole shop and could be seen from far away, which alarmed people living nearby.

Neighbours and passers-by alerted the fire department. A team from the Ganeshpeth fire station reached the spot in four minutes and began work at once. As the fire moved towards the adjoining houses, more vehicles were called. Altogether four fire tenders and four water bowsers were put to work, the bowsers so that the supply of water would not break. Crews came from the Ganeshpeth, Civil Lines, Lakadganj, Wathoda, Sakkardara and Sugat Nagar stations. One account counts six fire engines in all.

Residents were frightened by several loud blasts. These were reportedly caused by the compressors of refrigerators and air conditioners bursting in the heat. The lanes in the area are narrow, and the fear grew as the flames closed in on the neighbouring homes.

The firefighters needed more than three hours of hard effort to bring the fire under control. Chief Fire Officer Tushar Barahate, Ganeshpeth fire station in-charge Vilas Tilgule and other senior officers came to supervise the operation and assess the damage. The crews worked under the direction of Tilgule and Leading Fireman Bijwe. As a precaution against a fresh flare-up, one fire tender stayed at the site and went back to its station at 3.50 pm.

The goods stored in the shop were burnt to ashes. The loss at the shop is estimated at about Rs 35 lakh, though firefighters saved stock worth about Rs 5 lakh. In the two houses, beds, chairs, other furniture, an AC, a tarpaulin and further belongings were damaged. The damage to Ramesh Bhawla's house is put at about Rs 50,000 and that to Manoj Shrivas's house at about Rs 20,000. Together with the shop, the total comes to Rs 35.7 lakh.

A senior fireman said the shop was an old structure built with tin sheets, wooden items and brick walls, which let the fire spread fast. The shop reportedly had no fire-fighting arrangements of its own, and that made the work of the rescue teams harder as the blaze grew.

Sources also said the roads around the shop were badly encroached at the time, and that this made it very hard for the firefighters to reach the fire and douse it. They said the encroachment delayed the effort and added greatly to the damage, and that the fire could have been controlled sooner and the loss largely avoided without it.

Ganeshpeth police have registered a case. The cause of the fire is not yet known. The investigation is expected to establish how it started and whether any lapse in safety made the damage worse.