AGARTALA, Oct 14 (TIWN): The people of Badarghat under Amtali PS on Wednesday morning narrowly escaped death when massive fire broke out in the go down of NECC and ATC. Tension prevailed for more than hours at Badarghat area when fire broke out in the go down at 5 in the morning triggering panic among the people of the area. Reportedly, the incident took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning when a localite of the area witnessed smoke spreading wide in the area and immediately realized that fire broke out in the premises of the godown. The eye witness also said that the fire broke out due to the short circuit. Getting alarm about the fire incident huge police force of Amtali PS along with 7 fire service crew reached the spot and after several attempts brought the fire under control. Fortunately the fire fighters reached the spot on time and contained the fire that prevented the flames to spread to the other parts of the area. However, the fire altogether gutted huge amount of goods including clothes and other materials spreading horror among the people of the area. Talking to Amtali police station OC, he confirmed that a loss of more than crores of rupees is estimated and there is no report of any casualty so far.Police also claimed that the fire sparked off in the go down form electric short circuit and there is no report of any suspicious incident behind the massive fire break out.

According to reports, a huge cloth go-down was gutted in the fire. However, there were no injuries or casualties. Till now it is not possible to mention the exact amount of loss in terms of rupees.

The area is one of the oldest and most-congested go-down in the city. Located near a residential area and hence there were fears that the fire could spread to nearby buildings.

An eyewitness present at the site added, "For several years, there was speculation that a fire may break out in this area. But no preventive measures were taken so long and today finally the accident took place."

Following the incident huge crowd gathered infront of the go down. Though the police and fire tenders reached the spot, the panic gradually spread in the entire area generating serious terror among the locals in the area.

In addition to causing fire and explosion hazards, fire can also damage vegetation, including large trees, and releases powerful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, local people added.

The locality was barricaded and entry to the spot was blocked. Traffic was also diverted in the locality to ensure that rescue work was not hindered.

However, after battling for more than two hours the fire was brought under control and the situation was settled down with the joint initiative of police and fire service crew.