Fire ravages commercial towers in Kanpur, nearly 800 shops gutted

April 01, 2023 01:45

At least 800 shops were gutted in a massive fire that broke out in a multi-storey commercial building and quickly spread to adjacent towers in the Bansmandi area in Kanpur early Friday, a senior official said.

Despite the continuous efforts of fire officials of Kanpur and its nearby districts, the fire could not be doused even till late evening, officials said.

Prime facie the fire broke out due to a short circuit following a massive dust storm.

The blaze started at 2 am in AR Tower also known as Afaq Rasool Tower and spread to Maqsood, Humraz complex and Nafees towers charing about 800 shops located in these four towers, the official said, adding strong winds fanned the flames.

"It has been over 20 hours since we started dousing off the fire. As many as 60 fire tenders have been pressed into operation and they have been refilled over 400 times altogether to put the fire out," said BP Jogdand police commissioner.

According to the senior official, goods and cash worth about Rs 150 crore have been gutted in the blaze.

A four-member committee headed by Additional DM (Finance and Revenue) Rajesh Kumar and comprising additional municipal commissioner, joint director trade tax and chief fire officer as members have been formed to probe the incident and assess the losses, said district magistrate Vishal G Ayyar.

The committee has been formed following instructions of deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak who also inspected the incident site and met the shopkeepers whose shops and establishments were destroyed in the blaze, DM added. -- PTI

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