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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
SONEPAT (HARYANA), NOV 7: Fate's cruel hand snuffed out the lives of 44 persons at a busy marketplace crowded with Diwali shoppers here, after a devastating fire raged through the area on Saturday. A magisterial probe has been ordered into the mishap.
Sixteen women and eight children were among the dead, and 13 persons were injured in the fire which began at 1700 hours yesterday and continued till early today as 13 fire tenders and private water tankers battled the flames throughout the night. At least 23 shops were gutted.
While 35 people were choked to death as they shut themselves inside plastic, crockery and cassette shops to escape the blaze at the Katcha Quarter market in Ashok Nagar locality here last evening, the others died of burn injuries.The bodies of the trapped shoppers, including nine members of four families, were found early today when the shutters of the shops were prised open, deputy commissioner Sudhir Rajpal told PTI.
A police constable, Ashok Kumar, died of burn injuries whiletrying to rescue people in the area and another head constable Surinder Kumar received injuries.
Eyewitnesses said the fire might have started following sparks in the high tension wires over the market which fell over a cracker and a cloth shop.Fire tenders where rushed from nearby Panipat, Rothak Bhahadurgarh in Haryana and Narela in Delhi as there were only two fire tenders in Sonepat district.
Private water tankers owned by local Congress MLA Dev Rajdiwan were also pressed into service.
Senior police officials also lent a helping hand in fighting fire all night, eyewitnesses said. Civil hospital in the area was flooded by people who were busy identifying their dear ones.
Among the injured, the condition of four was stated to be serious and were shifted to PGI hospital in Rothak while two injured were being treated in civil hospital. Six persons were admitted to a private nursing home while another was shifted to nearby Mittal area for treatment.
Among those who visited the area where AjayChautala, MP, Bhoopinder Singh Hooda, state unit Congress president, Chief Secretary R S Verma and inspector general of police (Rothak area) Johan V George.
Haryana Governor Mahabir Prasad and Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala have expressed grief over the tragedy and announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh each to the next of kin of those killed.
This is the second major fire incident in the state after the December 1995 blaze at Dabwali in Sirsa district which claimed over 400 lives during a school function held in a shamiana.
Meanwhile, a pall of gloom had descended over the area and people were seen wailing as some had lost their kin in the 13-hour devastating fire. ``We had been warning the local authorities about the bad condition of electrical wires in the area...But all of them used to fall on deaf ears,'' says Devi Dayal, a local resident.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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