No road connectivity for fire tenders, Shimla village loses 6 houses, elderly woman to inferno

Shimla: An elderly woman was feared charred to death and six houses were destroyed in a devastating fire at Phanel village of Kotkhai in Shimla district in Himachal Pradesh in the wee hours of Wednesday. Chief ,inister Jai Ram Thakur said the administration will extend all possible assistance to the affected families. He said directions had been issued to the district administration to provide immediate relief to affected families.

Reasons of fire could be ascertained. While the body has not been recovered, firefighting operations last for closed to eight hours. Police officials at Kotkhai police station had received information about the fire incident after which administration and police teams rushed to the spot to launch firefighting operation.

People whose houses have been destroyed are Prabhu Dayal, Bimla Devi, Rajesh, Jai Lal, Devi Singh and Jai Kishan. Bimla Devi is the suspected to have died.

Located 70km from district headquarter Shimla, Phanel under Ramnagar panchayat is deprived of road connectivity due to which fire tenders could not reach the village to douse the flames. It was the villagers who put up a united effort to fight the inferno. Firefighting operations started from 2.30am and continued till 10am, despite this the flames could not be doused completely.


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