IMPHAL, December 11: A wooden two storey building was completely razed down to the ground by a fire suspected to have started from a hotel in the building at Lilong Bazar this morning.
The building which houses 12 shops belong to Md Ziourahaman, 40 and his brother Afzal son of Kayamuddin of Kyamgei.
The building had two hotels, a shop selling Moreh items, a computer and mobile phone shop, two tailors, a CD parlour, two variety stores, a book store, a cycle workshop, and a kitchen.
Sources informed that the fire had started from one of the hotels inside the building. The hotel owner has been identified as one Shivachandra, 70 of Samastipur, Bihar.
It is also earnt that a gas cylinder also exploded during the inferno.
Fire service at Imphal was informed at around 8:26am who reported to the Thoubal Fire sevice at around 8:48am.
Sources also informed that soon after receiving the news, the Imphal Fire Service dispatched two fire tenders, a Bolero with AFT and a DI Tata with portable water pump.
Soon after another fire tender joined the team from Imphal in their exercise to extinguish the fire.
Locals expressed their anger over the later entry of the Thoubal Fire tender than the Imphal team, however the fire tender sources, informed that the Imphal Fire aService was informed first and above that the Imphal Fire service is nearer.
Meanwhile, a source has speculated the value of the property gutted down during the fire at around Rs 50 lakh even though the exact valuation is not yet done.
DC of Thoubal T Ranjit visited and inspected the incident.