A fire gutted Balaji Cotton Industry in Nepalgunj Sub-metropolis-27, Banke, on Saturday morning, destroying property worth Rs10 million.  

It is the fourth incident of fire in the factory owned by Pankaj Kumar Baishya. According to the locals, they saw fire in the factory at around 4am. Police suspect that the fire might have been triggered by a short circuit. 

The security personnel of Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force doused the fire with the help of a fire engine at around 10am. An excavator was used to demolish the factory walls to prevent the fire from spreading. 

The firefighters from the Nepalgunj Sub-metropolis, who reached the site in half an hour of the incident, struggled to contain the fire with the only fire engine. 

The Sub-metropolis owns two fire engines but one has been out of order for the past three months. “We rushed to the site upon being informed about the inferno. One fire engine was not enough to douse the massive fire. We could possibly control the fire if we had another engine as well,” firefighter Meraj Ahmed Khan told the Post.  

There have been 28 incidents of fire in the district in the past two months, according to the firefighters. 

Property worth Rs1m destroyed in Biratnagar 

MORANG: Property worth about Rs1.1 million was destroyed in a fire that ripped through a row of shops in Biratnagar-14 on Friday night. The fire broke out from a tyre shop belonging to Mohammad Abbas and spread to the adjoining electric shop. The security personnel and the locals brought the fire under control a few hours after the incident. (PR)