A houseboat on Srinagar’s Dal Lake caught fireplace yesterday and it unfold quick.
Srinagar:
Three vacationers from Bangladesh, who have been staying in an beautiful houseboat in Srinagar, have died within the devastating fireplace at Dal Lake’s Ghat quantity 9. The precise reason behind the hearth continues to be not identified and an investigation is in progress, officers mentioned.
The fireplace broke out in one of many houseboats — historically fabricated from wooden — on Saturday morning and unfold to others moored alongside. 5 houseboats have been lowered to cinders earlier than fireplace officers may convey the blaze underneath management. A number of vacationers have been rescued, however three guests from Bangladesh died.
“The fireplace erupted at 5 am and the police, fireplace officers and the state catastrophe reduction pressure reached the spot,” mentioned Aam Asad, the District Justice of the Peace of Srinagar. “Since houseboats are fabricated from wooden, as soon as a hearth begins it engulfs a complete houseboat,” he mentioned.
“We could not make out the way it occurred,” mentioned native boatman Mohammad Yaqoob, speculating that it may have been brought on by friction. “Inside minutes, every part was gone. We now have misplaced every part. Nothing might be salvaged,” he mentioned.
Kashmir’s well-known houseboats are actually struggling to remain afloat.
The houseboat house owners’ affiliation say the variety of houseboats have come right down to 750 from 2000 within the final three many years.
Purpose — a court-imposed ban on the development of recent houseboats. Ageing houseboats aren’t getting repaired on time both due to delay in official permission and problem of availing cedar wooden. Houseboats are fabricated from exquisitely carved wooden together with cedar.
The boatmen say they want extra firefighting infrastructure within the Dal.
Abdul Razak, who has been a boatman for the final 50 years, mentioned he’s extra shocked concerning the lack of three lives than the lack of the houseboats.
“I am deeply saddened by the demise of the three individuals within the fireplace. A houseboat will be constructed once more however these three lives can by no means come again,” he mentioned.
Underscoring the necessity for firefighting system within the lake, he mentioned this lacunae is the most important downside. “Our attraction to the federal government is for fireplace tenders within the lake,” he mentioned.
Final yr, seven houseboats have been burnt in two separate fireplace incidents in Nageen and Dal Lake.
