Handicraft workshop gutted in fire; goods worth lakhs destroyed

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, September 13

A sudden fire erupted on the upper floor of Kanhaiya Lal Brij Lal’s workshop, a well-known wooden inlay handicraft firm at Dabbi Bazaar, one of the city’s oldest crowded market, late Saturday night. Raw material and machinery worth lakhs of rupees burnt in the fire. The fire brigade took two hours to douse the flames, but by then most of the goods had been burnt. Luckily, the fire did not reach the lower floors or else the damage could have been even greater.

Workshop owner Gunesh Jain said that around 2.30 am chowkidar of the market informed him that the roof of the workshop was on fire. In the meantime someone from the market informed the fire brigade. The fire tenders could not enter the narrow market, due to which fire personnel Sukhdev Singh, Ajay Pal Singh and Gurditt Singh, under the leadership of fire officer Rajan Kumar, parked the fire tenders in Kanak Mandi Chowk and controlled the fire after nearly two hours. Wood and raw material worth lakhs of rupees, one generator, electric machinery and roof of the upper floor warehouse were burnt to ashes. The cause of the fire was not known.