By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, NOV. 23: A fire broke out at a house on the Bhagsunath road around 2:15 AM this morning. The fire, sources say, has been caused by a short circuit in an electric pole adjacent to the house near Green Hotel. However, no human casualty has been reported. The loss to property is estimated to be around 16-18 lakh rupees including the 5-6 lakhs worth of goods destroyed in the fire.
The house belonged to an to an elderly Tibetan couple who had rented it out as storage to Gendun Tsephel, a Tibetan who runs Peace Coffee House, and two others who sell gift items on roadside makeshift stalls. “All the rations and stock of my café is charred along with the merchandises like shawls and sweaters of two shopkeepers,” said Gendun Tsephel.
Gendun added that he feels more gutted having lost all the documents of the association of newly arrived Tibetans ‘Sanjor Tsokpa’, an association with over 600 members. He also said that he had complained numerous times to the concerned officials of the local electricity board about the recurring sparks.
He said that it could have been worse had there been any unused full LPG cooking cylinders in the house. He said he had three empty cylinders in the house fortunately.
According to eyewitnesses, a major credit to contain the fire from spreading to other houses goes to the Tibetans living nearby who braved the fire and managed to subdue the fire before the fire fighters arrived.
“We have arranged a donation appeal letter from our office urging the people to help them and we have also met with Onkar Nehria, Ward Councilor regarding the electric wire problems and will approach the electricity board with the problem,” Dawa Rinchen, Dharamshala Tibetan Settlement Officer, said. Rinchen urged that Tibetans should file complaints in writing to the settlement office and the local Indian administrative offices regarding and such issues.
The touristic hill-town saw a major fire incident in 2004, when around 12 shops and restaurants, mostly owned by Tibetans, were destroyed including the famous everything – under – one – roof – Shop owned by Purang Dorjee.
