A shop in Phuentshogling town lost goods worth over Nu.370,000 in a fire incident. The incident happened at around 2.30am, today. The goods included kitchen items like rice and curry cookers, water boilers and melamine items.
The shop’s owner said the watchman of the building informed him about the fire and by the time he got to the shop, it was already late. Fire fighters took more than an hour to contain it.
The fire, suspected to have started from an electric short circuit, also destroyed goods worth Nu.40,000 belonging to the adjacent hardware shop.
The Bhutan Power Corporation’s official, investigating the cause of the fire, said the fire could have started due to the heat from some appliances they might have forgotten to switch off or disconnect before closing the shop. However, the owner said, like every day, yesterday as well, the shop was closed by 8:30pm and all switches turned off.
Meanwhile, in Zhemgang, a two-storied house was razed to the ground, last night. Family members lost all belongings in the fire incident in Wamling village in Shingkhar Gewog.
No casualties have been reported.
Timely assistance from the neighbors helped the members of the house escape unhurt.
The affected family members have been provided temporary shelters as Kidu from Gyalpo Zimpon’s office, Disaster Management team and the dzongkhag and gewog officials.