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Zealous devotees trigger blaze in pandal
FIRE BROKE out at the pandal where Pilot Baba was performing a ?hawan? at the Phoolbagh ground today. Thousands of devotees were taking part in the week-long hawan at the time of the mishap. There was a mad scramble to get out of the pandal. However, no one was reported injured in the melee, which occurred around 2.30 pm just as the ?hawan? was drawing to an end.
FIRE BROKE out at the pandal where Pilot Baba was performing a ‘hawan’ at the Phoolbagh ground today.
Thousands of devotees were taking part in the week-long hawan at the time of the mishap. There was a mad scramble to get out of the pandal. However, no one was reported injured in the melee, which occurred around 2.30 pm just as the ‘hawan’ was drawing to an end.
According to sources, devotees, including large number of women and children, had gathered at the venue to take part in the religious ceremony.
As many as 108 special ‘hawan kunds’ were constructed inside the pandal for the devotees. A special ‘hawan kund’ in the middle of the pandal was constructed for Pilot Baba to preside over the ceremony.
Instead of offering ‘hawan’ material and coconuts in their respective ‘kunds’, enthusiastic devotees started throwing them in the ‘hawan kund’ where the Baba was performing the ceremony.
With hundreds of coconuts thrown by devotees landing at the Baba’s ‘hawan kund’, the fire in the kund rose 50-feet high triggering fire in the pandal’s roof.
One of the coconuts also exploded aggravating the raging fire. Within no time, the roof caught fire and engulfed the entire pandal leading to a scramble and stampede-like situation. But the iron net around the pandal, installed by the organisers of the ceremony, made escape difficult for the devotees.
It was only when hundreds of people standing outside the pandal came to the rescue of the screaming devotees and broke open the iron net so that they could manage to escape from the inferno.
Srikant, a Barra-2 resident, spent some tense moments when he could not find his wife. His son Sandeep and daughter tried to enter the burning pandal in search of their mother but circle officer Kotwali Rakesh Jolly prevented them.
He ushered the brother-sister duo to a safer place. After a few minutes, Sandeep found his mother safe outside the pandal.
The magnitude of the fire could be gauged by the fact that within three minutes, the entire pandal was gutted down.
Prompt action by the district administration and fire tenders also averted any casualty. Fire tenders present on the ground along with those, which rushed to the venue, controlled the fire. More than 15 fire tenders were pressed into service to extinguish the blaze.
During the weeklong ceremony, several dignitaries, including Vidhan Sabha Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, politicians and prominent industrialists of the state took part.
