AT Photo: Fire breaks out in an establishment in Jorhat's commercial area, AT Road
Jorhat, Nov. 2: A fire accident broke out in Jorhat’s commercial area AT Road on the intervening night of Saturday, leading to the death of one person. The reason behind the outbreak of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The victim, identified as Sushil Rai, lost his life in during the incident and his body was later recovered by the fire and emergency services.
According to a local, “The deceased was from Bihar and he was asleep at the time when the fire broke out."
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Deputy Controller, Civil Defence, Jorhat, Simanta Sarma said, The reason behind fire outbreak is still not yet known but the Fire & Emergency Services (F&ES), SDRF (State Disaster Response Force), and civil defence worked to douse the fire. However, when we were informed that there was a person missing, we immediately conducted search operations and later found the dead body. Since the temperatures were extremely high, the body was charred. We have sent the body for post mortem to JMCH (Jorhat Medical College and Hospital). He was a worker in one of the shops that caught fire last night.”
Sarma further added that there is a substantial lack of awareness amongst people with regard to fire accidents.
“The people, particularly the business community, often do not seem to want to take steps to ensure the mitigation of fire accidents. There is a high risk of fire accidents in these areas of the city which are highly congested,” Sarma said.
Following the news of the fire outbreak at night, the police acted promptly to douse the fire and handle the situation.
“Four trucks from F&ES in Jorhat have been called. We have also called for fire tenders from ONGC and Air Force. Currently, there are 13 fire tenders that are involved in dousing the fire,” said Shwetank Mishra, Superintendent of Police, Jorhat told The Assam Tribune.
On being asked what the scale of losses could be, Mishra said, “We will have a survey of the losses later, but from what we can assess now, there are about 2-4 houses that have been affected."
