Twenty two residential houses were gutted and more than five hundred livestock perished in a devastating fire incident in village Baraub, close to LoC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipore district and about 150-km north of here overnight, the police here said on Wednesday.
In a similar incident, seven houses were reduced into ashes in Yaripora village in southern Kulgam district. However, no loss of life has been reported in either mishap.
Reports received here from Gurez said that fire broke out in a house at Baraub, about 60-km from the de facto border, shortly after midnight on Tuesday which quickly engulfed other mud-timber houses in the village. Since the roads in hilly area continue to remain covered by over 20 feet snow, no fire tenders could be moved in to control the fire. In the consequential devastation not only were 22 houses gutted, 350 sheep and goats,125 buffaloes and 45 horses were burnt alive, officials said.
A defence spokesperson here said that Army troops located at Baraubr “once again provided active and immediate support when around midnight the entire village was engulfed by fire.”