Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
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| Smoke envelopes a portion of wholesale cloth market after fire broke out at Himani Sarees on Sunday evening. |
By Dheeraj Fartode
Cloth material worth lakhs was gutted in a fire at one of the shop at Handloom Market in Gandhibag on Sunday evening. The flames were noticed by guard at M/s Himani Sarees at 5 pm. The owner had recently made alterations in the two storeyed building and created partitions to make it a five storeyed structures.The market sources said owing to marriage season, a huge stock was kept in the shop. As the flames were not billowing out the fire brigade was informed. Six tenders were directed to the spot. In the meantime the owner Dilip Santalal Madan too reached and he and his friend and family members emptied out the ground portion. The packed cartons were removed well in time that saved him a major loss, the eye witnesses said.
The shop was stocking sarees, high end cloth material, suiting shirtings. The firemen battled it hard for nearly four hours before managing to douse the flames. Though the major destruction was not due to fire but due to spraying of water all over the shop. Apart from Himani Sarees, the other outlets Shree Sarees, Asha Sarees, Richa Collection too suffered collateral damage due to spraying of water.
A large crowd of onlookers had jammed the narrow by-lanes inside the Handloom Market that serves to entire Central India. Apart from wholesale dealers, a large number retail stores too have opened their establishments in the old building. The fire is suspected to have been caused due to suspected electric short circuit.
The investigations by fire brigade revealed that though interior structure was altered on a major scale the electric wiring remained as it was 40-years old. With opening of retail outlets the electric load on the wiring has increased with addition of high end electrical appliances. To make the problem more worse the lack of fire fighting equipment meant fire brigade had to rush for refill to their water points.
Chief Fire officer of NMC Rajendra Uchke, MLA Vikas Kumbhare, former chairman of standing committee Dayashankar Tiwari, Corporators Bandu Raut and Pravin Bhisikar, Sanjay Khule, Congress leader Atul Kotecha, Arvind Chandak and many other were present.
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