Bhopal: Goods worth Rs 100 crore were destroyed as a major fire gutted 150 shops in Saint Hiradaram Shopping Complex under the Bairagarh police station on Sunday afternoon. District administration had to rope in army to douse the flame. After six hours of hard work, firemen and the jawans managed to control the fire. Short circuit was blamed for the fire in the complex that houses 180 shops dealing in sarees and clothes. Luckily no loss of life was reported. The police had to block one side of the road to provide uninterrupted passage to fire tenders.
According to reports, the fire broke out around 12 noon on the ground floor as shopkeepers were busy in routine work. Within 15 minutes, the flames reached the top floor and engulfed the entire shopping complex. Bairagarh town inspector Sudheer Arjaria was the first to reach the spot along with his team and immediately launched operation to evacuate shopkeepers. Owing to intensity of flames, power supply to the area was snapped and fire tenders were requisitioned.
Fire tenders from Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC), Sultania Infantry Lines, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and Airport authority of India (AAI) were also requisitioned to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby areas. Even armymen were called in to evacuate shopkeepers from the burning complex. Smoke belching out of the complex was evident from long distance. Superintendent of police (SP), North, Hemant Chouhan said that though financial loss was yet to be quantified, no loss of life was reported. He further said that police had tough time preventing bereaving shopkeepers from entering the burning complex to retrieve their belongings. Later in the evening, local MLA Rameshwar Sharma and deputy inspector general (DIG) Santosh Singh too visited the spot.
