SRINAGAR — At least two scrap collectors were killed and nearly 80 temporary shelters were gutted in a blaze in Srinagar's Bemina area in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said, IANS reported. The fire broke out at around 12:23 a.m. in Durbal, Bemina, engulfing approximately 80 makeshift shelters constructed from tarpaulin and wood, officials said. An empty poultry farm and a tipper were also damaged in the blaze.

Source: IANS

Kashmir News Trust (KNT) reported the same toll and scale from the ground: two scrap collectors from Delhi died after the fire swept through the cluster of temporary shelters on the outskirts of Srinagar during the intervening night, reducing at least 80 makeshift structures — most of them used by scrap dealers for work and accommodation — to ashes. Police personnel, Fire and Emergency Services teams and local residents rushed to the spot and joined efforts to douse the flames, KNT reported.

Source: Kashmir News Trust

~80Temporary shelters gutted in Durbal, Bemina (officials, via IANS/KNT)
2Scrap collectors killed — both from Delhi, officials said
12:23 a.m.Time the fire was reported, night of Nov 3-4

Officials identified the deceased as Mohd Noor Alam (27), son of Abdal Wahab, a Delhi resident living in Durbal, and Al Ameen (16), son of Mohd Rafi, a Delhi native living in Kupwara, IANS reported; both were working as scrap collectors in Durbal, Bemina. KNT carried the second name in the fuller form Muhammad Ameen Rafi. Fire tenders from the JVC and Rawalpora fire stations, with reinforcements from the Fire and Emergency Services headquarters at Batamaloo, were pressed into service, officials told IANS, and eyewitnesses said flames had spread across the area before the crews were called in. After the fire was brought under control, two bodies were recovered from the debris.

Source: IANS

The bodies were handed over to local police after completion of forensic (FSL) proceedings, police have registered a case, and the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, officials told IANS. KNT reported that the loss of property was substantial, although the exact extent of the damage was yet to be assessed, and that the settlement's destruction had hit those who depended on it for livelihood and accommodation. Asian News Hub, citing the Kashmir News Observer (KNO), also reported the 12:23 a.m. outbreak, the two deaths and the damage to an empty poultry farm and a tipper. Sources: IANS, Kashmir News Trust, Asian News Hub / KNO.

Source: Asian News Hub / KNO