SRINAGAR: Nearly 500 juggies went up in flames late last night in Jammu’s Trikuta Nagar. There were no human losses but the hundreds of families, all non-locals, were displaced.
Fires in slums are normal in Jammu. Last year, four Rohingya refugees were killed in a devastating fire that destroyed their shanties.
The residents said the Fire and Emergency Service deputed just one machine to extinguish the conflagration. It exhausted the water it was carrying and then drove back.
The area that went up in flames is called Maratha Mohalla. A resident, whose tent also went up in flames, said the fire emerged from the neighbouring Bengali Mohalla and spread to the entire slum. “We somehow managed to get our kids out,” Raju, the resident said. “Whatever we had, we lost and includes the bedding and the cooking utensils.” He said the intervention of the fire services would have prevented the loss to the extent that the resident could have saved their basic items. “But they came late and worked for a few minutes and left,” he insisted.
