Blaze in govt officials’ complex Bikes and cars gutted in dawn fire in Sikkim

The cars and motorbikes destroyed in the blaze near Gangtok 
Pictures by Prabin Khaling

Nirmal Mangar, TT, Gangtok, Oct. 22: Seven cars and 14 motorbikes were gutted at dawn today in a parking lot blaze inside a Sikkim government officials’ residential campus. Police and fire officers said they suspected “miscreants” were behind the blaze in the parking lot of the three-storey building in Upper Syari that houses three families, among them the Sikkim state personnel department’s deputy secretary. A police source said someone may have thrown the burning firecracker inside the parking area. One of the residents of the building said he heard something burst but was not sure if it was a firecracker. Nobody was injured. 

The cars and motorbikes belonged to the families of the officials staying in the complex. The residential campus for the state government officials is 3km from Gangtok town and hardly 500m from Deorali Bazaar, where yesterday an eight-year-old girl died of suffocation when a fire broke out in a few wooden huts. There are 16 buildings for government officials that accommodate 48 families in Upper Syari. According to residents, the campus was never guarded.

Asked why the cops suspected the hand of “miscreants” and not any accidental blaze, sources in the police said there were no exposed wires or any switch box inside the parking lot.

The police said they were questioning people living near the complex to find out if they might have seen anything suspicious.

Two of the three families living in the building where the fire happened were not at home last night.

The first person to notice the fire was Yebesh Rai, the son of Bharat Bhushan Rai, the deputy secretary in the department of personnel. The Rais live on the second floor of the building. 

The soot-marked building in whose parking lot the fire broke out. 

“When I heard a loud sound, I came out to the veranda. I saw bikes going up in flames. I woke up my parents, wife and domestic help and we all went downstairs. The fire was engulfing the cars parked near the two-wheelers. We had a narrow escape,” said Rai, who somehow brought his family out of the building.

“This is for the first time that such a fire has happened in the government residential complex. Since there is no any wall or boundary, which could block entry of an outsider to the complex to an extent, people could easily walk inside without anyone’s notice. There is also hardly any police patrolling in the area during the night,” said government employee K.B. Chhetri, residing in one of the 16 buildings.

One of the burnt cars at the basement of the government building

The East district collector said the building housed three government officers’ families and was certified to be fit for occupation by the housing and building department.

“The principal secretary of the law department, R.K. Purkashtya, stays on the top floor, while additional director in the horticulture department, B.L. Lama, has been allocated the first-floor. Both the families were not present when the fire broke out,” Yebesh said.

The deputy chief fire officer, Prakash Rai, said: “Prima facie, it seems someone threw crackers inside the building to torch the vehicles. There was no possibility of a short circuit or ignition causing the fire. It was the work of some mischief makers.”

East district collector Tsewang Gyatcho who visited the spot said police were carrying out an investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire.

“Officials of the buildings and housing department inspected the apartment. They said the fire didn’t cause any damage to the building and it’s fit for the families to continue to live there,” Gyatcho said.

Three fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire. “It took almost an hour to bring the blaze under control,” said Prakash Rai.

However, he said the vehicles parked along the road leading to the government quarters had posed hindrance to the fire engines’ movement.

“First of all, the road to the housing complex is narrow. On the top of that, there were vehicles parked on either side of the road and it was difficult for the fire engines to move forward. Still, we could reach the spot on time and extinguish the fire. We also got support from the local people who removed the vehicles from both sides of the road,” Prakash Rai said.

The traffic police had last week issued an advisory asking residents of Gangtok not to park vehicles haphazardly on narrow roads.

Kunga Nima, the Syari MLA, said: “I have suggested to police to start night patrol in the area so that anti-social activities can be checked,” said the MLA.