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Ludhiana: Fire ravages 12 shanties, biting cold haunts victims
The fire started after one of the residents, identified as Ram Asra, was preparing tea and the LPG cylinder leaked, and caught fire
: A massive fire gutted an entire cluster of 12 shanties at a slum on Jassian Road here on Friday, rendering around 35 dwellers homeless, who have no where to go in the chilling conditions.
The fire started after one of the residents, identified as Ram Asra, was preparing tea and the LPG cylinder leaked, and caught fire.
Asra said that the fire in the cylinder led to a small explosion and soon the fire engulfed the cluster of slums.
His kids were at school and his wife was out at work at the time of the incident.
No casualty was reported in the incident. All the slum dwellers vacated the cluster promptly after the fire started.
Pawan, a labourer, said that his family was robbed of the safety of a roof right when the rains had started in this cold weather.
Women of the families, who lost their houses, worried about how would they keep their kids warm in this weather.
“It is bone-chilling these days. Even sitting in quilts doesn’t help. Think about how we will now live out in the open,” Malti, a mother of four, said.
“We don’t earn enough to keep our bellies full, to others it would just be some tarp sheets, but to us, it was a shelter and we will now have to make these again,” she said.
According to the dwellers, strong wind led to the fast spread of fire which made it difficult to contain.
According to Fire Officer, Atish Rai, it took the fire brigade around two-and-a-half hours and three fire trucks to douse the flames.
