Myanglung,Tehrathum, Dec 9,2002.
About 300 families were rendered homeless and property worth NRs two billion reduced to a cinder, after a blazing fire gutted down at least 80 houses and several government offices here, the district headquarters, on Sunday evening.
Hari Lochan Sharma Tehrathum chief District Officer(CDO), said that an estimated property worth NRs two billion was damaged due to the fire but added that it would go up, as details of the property damaged have yet to be evaluated. The fire which erupted due to a short-circuit inside a tailor’s room, spread through the entire area and was contained several hours later at round nine in the morning, he said.
But smoke could be seen belching out of the rubble of the carried houses and people were seen bemoaning the loss of their property.
Home Minister Dharma Bahadur Thapa arrived here today to take stock of the situation and pledged to provide NRs 500,000 in cash as immediate relief to the fire victims.
An all-party emergency meeting, held in the presence of that Home Minister, decided to temporarily settle the families rendered homeless in public buildings, schools and campuses, restore drinking water supply, electricity and communications, organize free health camps and remove the rubble from the area as soon as possible.
On behalf of the fire victims, Kishor Chandra Dulal, former chairman of the District Development Committee, asked Home Minister Thapa to provide soft loans to the victims.
But the minister did not immediately say anything about the demand, said Dulal.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, as all the locals had already fled their houses before the blaze spread all over the bazaar. Sharma said that the displaced families spent a chilly night under the open sky and had nothing to eat.
Apart from 77 private and commercial firms, the fire also gutted the buildings of Nepal Bank Limited, Comptroller’s Office, District Co-operative Office, quarters and store of District Development Committee(DDC), district offices of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party.
CDO Sharma said locals are now facing acute shortage of food supply, drinking water electricity and communications. Rescuers said they were helpless in the lack of adequate fire extinguishers. The nearest fire service takes 6 hours to reach to the place.
Tejman Kandangwa, former DDC vice-chairman, said that one of the greatest challenges before the authorities was to provide the homeless families with food and shelter. He feared that an epidemic could break out in the area, as sources of water went out of order and many cattle died on the fire.
One of the victims said that people from the adjoining bazaar could not come here due to the dusk-to dawn curfew order imposed for the last one year. He said that even the people of the bazaar did not come to extinguish the fire because of the curfew. The homeless families said that their goods were stolen while taking them out of their houses. Goldsmith Tulsi Joshi said that a kilogram of gold and some silver jewellery were stolen from his place.
“By sunrise, the district headquarters were reduced into a pile of ashes. We lost everything we had,” lamented Nirmal Dhungana with eyes full of tears.

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