Bhubaneswar: The Capital city Thursday woke up to a major fire that broke out at the second floor of a shopping complex on Damana-Sailashree Vihar Road here, reducing baby and mother care products worth lakhs of rupees to cinders. However, no casualties were reported.
The fire was reported around 5.15am by a few locals, who spotted thick smoke emanating from the second floor of Venus Daily Mart. The intensity of the blaze was so high that six fire tenders took more than an hour to contain the inferno.
Although, the fire services personnel managed to contain the flames from spreading to other parts of the complex, some items of a saloon on the same floor were damaged by the heat.
While the shop executives claimed that the inferno was caused by short-circuit, fire brigade officials are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the blaze. “We suspect an electric short-circuit could be one of the reasons,” deputy fire officer Ramesh Chandra Majhi said.
Sources said valuables worth Rs 35 lakh were reduced to cinders. “Efforts are on to ascertain the precise cause of the inferno as well as the quantum of loss,” a fire official said.
PNN
