Tuesday evening witnessed a massive fire taking up a building inside the Mata Vaishno Devi temple complex up in flames in northern India.
The incident took place in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir after what seemed to be the result of an electrical short circuit near the shrine situated in Katra.
The fire broke out at 4:15 pm inside a cash counting room, which suffered the most damage, according to reports. However, the room in Kalika Bhavan is at some distance from the main site of the temple but next to the sanctum sanctorum. It was brought under control at around 5 pm after burning for 45 mins.
Mukesh Singh, Inspector-General of Jammu Police told NDTV that the fire is currently under control and no loss of life has been reported till now. The number of causalities, if any, weren’t mentioned.
Soon after the incident, Twitter was filled with images showing huge black fumes of smoke erupting from the top floor of a building close to the Vaishno Devi temple. Visuals from after the fire was put out showed significant damage to the building as it burned down completely. Some cash and documents have also been destroyed in the blaze, officials said.
Fire broke out in a Building situated near Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine #Katra, details awaited. @airnewsalerts pic.twitter.com/tgvnGSVVls
— AIR News Jammu (@radionews_jammu) June 8, 2021
We got a call around 4.30 pm. Initial reports suggest the fire broke out due to an electric short circuit,” NDTV reported Shailender Singh, the Senior Superintendent of Police for Reasi district, as saying.
CRPF personnel posted in the area ringed the first alarm, PTI said.
Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State, said he has spoken to the District Collector of Reasi, S Charandeep Singh who told him that they are solving the issue at hand. He added that things are stable now with no deaths reported so far.
“Spoke to DC Reasi, S Charandeep Singh, just now and inquired about the fire that broke out near the Vaishno Devi shrine some time back. Thankfully, everything brought under control. No major loss reported. However, keeping a close track for the next few hours,” he tweeted.
