As many as 12 furniture shops and a tea stall were ravaged in a fire that broke out at the furniture market on the Sector 53/54 dividing road on Wednesday.
Though no injury was reported in the fire that broke out around 4 pm, the incident sent the shopkeepers and their workers scurrying to save their articles amid thick plumes of smoke.
Suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit, this is the 11th major fire at the market in the last 15 years. Touted to be the largest furniture market in the city, it houses around 117 temporary furniture shops.
Amid the chaos caused by the fire, the police closed off the Sector 53/54 dividing road for traffic, leading to snarls on the connecting roads during rush hour.
“Around 4 pm, a worker raised the alarm about a fire in the rear side of the market. Within no time, the flames spread all over, damaging furniture and raw material,” said Sanjeev Bhandari, one of the shopkeepers.
It took around three hours for 14 fire tenders, including two from Mohali, to douse the flames. But the site was still smoldering till late night.
{{/usCountry}}It took around three hours for 14 fire tenders, including two from Mohali, to douse the flames. But the site was still smoldering till late night.
{{/usCountry}}“We are investigating the cause of fire. As a precautionary measure, two fire tenders were stationed near the market for the night. No one was hurt,” said Bhupinder Singh, leading fireman.
Mayor Sarbjit Kaur Dhillon visited the market to access the loss. “We will work towards relocation of the market and towards providing permanent structures instead of tin sheds,” she said.
Chemicals stored helped spread fire
While the exact cause of the fire could not be determined till the filing of the report, presence of chemicals, which shopkeepers use for making furniture, caused the flames to spread in no time.
The fire department has repeatedly pointed out various fire-safety violations at the market, which houses shops mostly under tin sheds and stores highly inflammable chemicals without proper fire-fighting equipment.
The department has also been highlighting unavailability of proper passage for movement of fire tenders behind the shops. But as the market is illegal, no fire-safety measures have been imposed by the municipal corporation.
The shopkeepers alleged that the UT administration had been ignoring their demand for relocation to a safer place. While the UT administration had tried to remove the shops, mostly run by tenants, they got a stay order from the Punjab and Haryana high court in 1993 and there has been no move to shift the market ever since.