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Jewellery, cash gone, bride-to-be faints as fire destroys shanties in Chandigarh
The fire department was informed about the blaze at about 3.29 pm, after which four fire tenders put it out in two hours, even as six huts, including the young quilt maker’s trousseau, were destroyed
The joyous songs being sung at a wedding sangeet ceremony changed to cries of terror as a fire broke out in Colony Number 4 in Industrial Area, gutting six shanties, even as the 24-year-old bride to be fainted after seeing her home and trousseau destroyed.
Rupali, 24, was celebrating her impending nuptials with her family when people sounded an alarm at about 3 pm. Soon, however, she lost consciousness after she saw her home, with her wedding dress, jewellery and money, in flames and had to be taken to hospital.
The fire department was informed about the blaze at about 3.29 pm and it took four fire tenders two hours to put it out.
‘How will my daughter get married now?’
“Nothing is left. I don’t know how my daughter will get married,” said Rupali’s mother Kalawati as she sifted through the ashes to collect remnants of the jewellery, which had melted into lumps.
“My family was about to apply mehndi on my hands when we saw our jhuggi on fire. I barely managed to rush out,” said Rupali, who was later released from hospital.
The wedding guests too escaped and the family managed to pull out the gas cylinders right on time from the hut. Everything else was destroyed, said Rupali’s brother-in-law Rahul, who runs a makeshift tea stall.
Rupali and Kalawati make quilts in winter and husk mesh for water coolers in summer, supplementing their income by selling sugarcane juice.
“The fire engulfed my shop, but we could not control it and called the fire department,” said Zulfikar Khan (41), who also makes quilts and runs a small shop near the government toilets.“The quilts which my customers had left for mending, with cotton and other material, were also destroyed,” said Khan.
Chandigarh police, however, stepped up immediately to help the victims, providing food for a 100 persons and even making arrangements with help from the UT administration to accommodate Rupali’s family and their wedding guests at a raen basera (night shelter).
Gurmukh Singh, deputy superintendent of police (East), said,“We have provided food to families whose huts were destroyed. For Rupali’s family we made arrangements for night stay but they preferred to move to homes of relatives in Ram Darbar.”
Arrangements were also made for other families in night shelters. They were also given blankets by a few non-profit organisations.
