Shimla forest fires create alarm, panic

shimla: Sunday was really a bad day for Shimla as raging forest fires created panic and traumatic scenes in the town but eventually brought some sigh of relief following light showers, dousing the flames.

The fire, which has been going on in Taradevi forests for the past some days, crossed the boundaries to reach closer to Shimla's Tutikandi forests.

The local inhabitants initially tried to fight the blames manually to save their residential houses and cattle. As most of the houses either lacked proper access or built haphazardly had no scope for the fire brigade for interventions.

Biggest threat, however, was posed to Tutikandi Balika Ashram, a centre run by the state government for destitute girls as the raging flames started spreading upto the ashram.

"The scene was very gruesome as the management and staff had to evacuate the panicked children as for some moments it looked the complex will be on fire," recalls Pradeep Kumar, a photojournalist at spot. "More than this, fears were about LPG cylinders stored at ashram for cooking. If the flames were not doused in time, it would have led to a huge tragedy," Pradeep added.

Additional Director General of police (Law and order) Abhishek Trivedi said the fire brigade made a very effective intervention to save the valika ashram. He confirmed that the forest fires had reached close to the town though no major loss of property or life was reported. In the day, Shimla town remained engulfed in thick smoke rising from the burning forests around Shimla. The videos of the fires went viral showing how panicked people were making efforts to prevent the fire damaging their homes.