Massive fire guts at least 25 shops in New Delhi

NEW DELHI - A major fire gutted at least 25 shops and goods worth millions of rupees at Kinari Bazar, located in the vicinity of Chandni Chowk in the national capital, on Saturday.

According to reports, the fire broke at 12 in the noon and destroyed several shops of garments and plastic materials.

“There are no causalities and nobody is injured. No one was stuck in the fire. After reaching the spot, it was our first duty to ensure that no one gets stuck in the fire. People were evacuated from the site and the shutters were pulled down,” said Suman Gupta, officer of the Delhi Fire Service.

The market is located near Sunhari Masjid (Mosque), which witnesses tens of thousands of footfall daily.

“There has been a loss of around crore of rupees, 25 to 30 shops have been destroyed…and each shop contains items worth lakhs of rupees. So, if we estimate, the total loss would run into millions of rupees,” said Deepak Mahendru, a shop owner in the market.

Around 20 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to tame the flames, and stop it from spreading to adjacent shops.

It took four hours to douse the blaze and at least 25 shops were gutted in the market. (ANI)