Major fire destroys more than 500 huts in Mandya

More than 500 huts in Tamil colony slum in Karnataka’s Mandya district were destroyed in an accidental fire on Monday evening rendering an estimated 5,000 people homeless.

The accidental fire that broke out from a hut with a thatched roof soon assumed the proportions of an inferno engulfing the entire settlement, causing panic and commotion among the inhabitants.

When the initial efforts by the dwellers to contain the spread of fire with buckets of water went in vain, they were forced to abandon their homes and rush out with whatever belongings they could carry.

Commissioner of Mandya City Municipal Council Ramaswamy told reporters that the fire was finally extinguished by pressing into service fire tenders from Mandya and neighbouring Mysore. The firemen had to battle with the leaping flames for more than three hours to put out the fire.

Eventually, all the 536 huts, predominantly occupied by migrant Tamil population, were reduced to ashes in the fire that destroyed household articles, including food grains, cash and jewellery.

The fire personnel and the police had to face the wrath of the angry slum dwellers, who accused the authorities of delaying the dispatch of fire tenders. Irate slum dwellers stoned a fire tender and a police jeep. The driver of a police jeep was injured when the glass pieces of vehicle’s windscreen hit his head.

The slum dwellers, who had watched their homes go up in flames, heckled senior police officials and tore the shirt of a police inspector when they reached the spot to calm the agitated crowd.

The protestors later marched to the Mysore-Bangalore highway and disrupted vehicular traffic. They threw stones at passing vehicles forcing authorities to divert the traffic away from the trouble spot in Mandya.

The Mandya district administration later opened temporary shelters for the homeless slum dwellers in Government schools and a nursing college.