Ludhiana: Tyre shop near Tajpur Road Chowk gutted in fire, no casualties

Shop was closed at the time as owner had gone to Anandpur Sahib at the time; short-circuit believed to be the cause of fire

Goods, furniture and machinery worth lakhs were gutted as fire broke out at a tyre shop near Tajpur Road Chowk on National Highway-44, on Sunday afternoon. No casualties were reported as the shop was closed at the time and the owner had gone to Anandpur Sahib with his family.

The charred trye shop near Tajpur Road Chowk in Ludhiana on Monday. (Harsimar Pal Singh/HT)

Short-circuit is believed to be the reason behind the fire.

Owner, Parminder Singh, said the shop is under closed-circuit television camera surveillance and he had remotely assessed the situation through his phone around 4pm. Half-an-hour later, he received a call from his neighbours that a fire had broken out in the shop.

The neighbours had also informed the police and fire brigade by then.

A JCB machine and battery-operated cutters were used to break open the shutters of the shop, for easing the firefighting operation.

Leading fireman Rajan Singh said two fire tenders were pressed into service and the operation lasted for over two hours.

The shop owner said, “The incident could have been averted if the shop had been opened on Sunday. We normal keep the shop open till late Sunday afternoon but had closed it as we were going to Anandpur Sahib. But we consider ourselves fortunate that there were no injuries or casualties.”