BHUBANESHWAR: Over 40 shops were gutted and goods worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed in a major fire at Unit-I market in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, police said.
The fire broke out around 1.30 am and over 13 fire tenders and 80 personnel took three hours to douse the inferno, they said, adding no casualty has been reported so far.
Chief Fire Officer Ramesh Chandra Majhi said it was difficult to control the fire as the shops were located close to each other and there was no space for the movement of men and material.
Another fire officer said that two persons were sleeping in a shop at the time of the incident but they managed to escape unhurt.
Later in the morning, Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Chanchal Rana visited the spot to assess the situation.
Das said that the fire spread rapidly as the shops were made up of plastic materials.
She said that many shops are erected in a small area in the market, leading to frequent fire incidents.
"As many as 40 shops and some vending carts were destroyed in the fire. To assess the losses, our emergency response teams and two teams from the tehsils have been deployed. Necessary government assistance will be provided to the affected shopkeepers," Rana told reporters.
He also stated that excess use of plastic to cover the shops led to such a massive fire incident at the market.
The BMC commissioner said that the special relief commissioner (SRC) has recently sanctioned funds over Rs 20 crore for making special fire prevention measures at the market. The DPR will be prepared in the next one month and then a tender will be awarded to execute the work, he said.
The BMC officers will continue an extensive enforcement drive to remove the encroachers from the market, Rana added.
Meanwhile, the entire unit-1 market was closed for the day to carry out necessary cleaning work in the area.