Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)
Kundpur, Jan 2: Fire which was ignited by electrical short circuit inside the puja room of a house at Movady near Trasi in the taluk at around 11.30 pm on Sunday, December 31, raged for hours and destroyed household items, jewellery, cash, valuable documents, clothes and other things. The tragedy resulted in loss to the tune of over Rs 25 lac.
No one was around when the house was enveloped by flames. As such, loss of lives was averted.
The incident happened in the house of Movady Raghavendra Ganiga. Apparently sparks which flew from the bulb that was burning in the puja room started fire in some things lying nearby. Flames then covered two other rooms including a bedroom. Cash amounting to Rs 1.15 lac kept inside a bag in the room, gold ornaments worth Rs 4.8 lac, and invaluable documents were turned into ashes. Clothes, furniture, electrical and electronic equipments, valuable wood used for house construction etc were burnt down because of fire.
As soon as they came to know about the fire, people in the neighbourhood tried their best to extinguish the fire and then called fire brigade. By the time the fire personnel reached the spot and brought the fire under control, major damage had already been done.
Raghavendra Ganiga lives here with his mother, wife, and son. On December 31, his wife and mother were not at home. Therefore, Raghavendra had left with his son to attend a programme organized at Movady school to welcome new year. He had not switched off the light in the puja room before leaving. As there was no one inside, the fire came to the notice of neighbours only after is acquired ominous proportions.
As soon as he came to know about fire, Raghavendra Ganiga ran to his house, and brought out gas cylinder from the kitchen. As the kitchen is located away from puja room, and the cylinder was brought out before it caught fire, a possible catastrophe was avoided.
Subdivsional officer from here, Shilpa Nag, tahsildar, G M Borkar, revenue officials etc visited the spot and estimated the loss. MLC, Kota Srinivas Poojary, zilla panchayat member, Shobha G Putran, taluk panchayat members, Narayan Gujjady and Rajeev Devadiga and several othes visited the family and promised to do everything within their command to see that the family gets maximum aid from the government.