Aakash Hassan
Jammu
A devastating fire kept Jammu awake for most of the night till the fire-fighters controlled the conflagration in a slum. By the time, it was controlled three persons had died.
“There were sudden cries that shattered my deep sleep; only to see abrupt flames up from Mohammad Saleem’s Juggy,” says Mohammad Yousuf, glaring at the smoldered debris. “The Juggy was located in the center.”
Before Yousuf and 81 families of Rohingya Muslim refugees could approach to douse the fatal fire engulfed many around. “The fire was so fast that it swallowed up everything in fifteen minutes,” Yousuf revels in the astonishing note, “thus left us only with what we wear.”
In the Saleem’s family no one survived except him because he was out on work. Among the dead is his wife Nornaha (32), and his two kids of age eight and one. While Nornaha was taken to hospital, body of her kids couldn’t be retrieved. “It was only foot of the infant that was left by the flames,” the eyewitnesses said. The fourth casualty was of Tasmeena Jan, 16, who was going to be married day after tomorrow. She was taken to GMC Jammu but death has flamed already the ‘bride’s body’.
Reports reaching from Jammu said the fire was reported at around 12 in the midnight in the Narwal slum, located on a private land. The slum shelters Rohingya refugees. Residents of Myanmar, Rohingyas are facing ethnic cleansing back home and a few hundred families are living in Jammu.
An official of the Fire and Emergency Services told Kashmir Life from Gandhi Nagar station that their men and machinery rushed to the spot within minutes. “It was a devastating fire and it took us more than 90 minutes to control it,” the official, not the spokesman of the department, said. “FIR is lodged and investigations are going on to identify the cause of the fire.
The official said there are nearly 70 juggis of the Rohingyas. “Almost 52 were destroyed and 18were saved,” the official said. “There were five khokhas as well which were also destroyed.”
Ram Tirath Dubey, Joint Director Fire & Emergency Services in Jammu supervised the fire-fighting operation. “It was all over within less than half an hour,” Dubey told Kashmir Life. “It happened because all the juggis were made of polythene, tin sheets and other combustible material which converted it into a huge inferno instantly.” There were not many gaps between the ramshackle juggis as well which could have reduced the impact of the fire.
“It was not a major fire but it was a serious one because many people died,” Dubey said. “Our personnel have recovered three dead bodies which are females – a woman and two infants.” He said there are three other persons seriously injured, of whom one possibility may not survive. The kids who were declared dead were below two years of age.
“It is poor who can’t live, from home to here God doesn’t let us live,” wails Jameela Begum. “We had left our home saving our lives and arrived here barefoot. But see our Juggies look disturbing nature.”
In the flattened land, one can imagine from the muddy bases the shelter of these homeless. “It was Madrassa for our kids who used to learn there. We would taught them Quran, Urdu, Arabic, Burmies ,” says Ismail, teacher of the Madrassa , while holding his tear back. His students are busy in collecting the burned pages of the Books and Holy Quran, leaving aside the despondency of the catastrophe they are stuck by.
Six-year- old, Ahsan and Hussain while collecting the burned pages of Holy book, kiss each page and water them.
Latest reports said that of the 6 critically injured, one more has succumbed to injuries. He is a male and had more than 80 percent burn injuries.
Dubey said the fire has rendered nearly 700 people shelter less and the overall losses could be somewhere around Rs 15 lakh.
Earlier, reported quoted Ramesh Gupta, superintendent of medical college hospital Jammu saying that they have treated six persons suffering critical burn injuries.
Besides, Rohingya Muslim refugees, another report said, there were other people also dwelling in the slum. But exact details may take some more time.
