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A part of the Kala Sangam pandal that was gutted on Wednesday. (Hardeep Singh)
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A blaze, that threatened to turn into an inferno at Ranchi’s Dhibri Bazar, sprung the only shocker for authorities who otherwise managed to put up a commendable show of law and order in the state capital during the five days of Durga Puja that concluded on Wednesday.
Sources said alert fire department officials from Audrey Fire House rushed to the Upper Bazar-based Kala Sangam area pandal on Navami (Tuesday) afternoon around 2.30pm and helped a blaze that was threatened to turn catastrophic every second. Though the reasons behind the fire were not clear, officials and the puja organisers claimed that there was a short circuit in an electric wire that passed over the pandal, which had come up in a densely populated part of the city.
Though no one was injured in the incident, a couple of volunteers are said to have received bruises while carrying out rescue operations.
“A portion of the pandal was burnt by the fire. However, we managed to contain the blaze before it could spread. It could have been avoided had the committee members heeded our advice while setting up their pandal ,” a fire department official from Audrey House said.
The incident proved to be a dampner for the committee members of Kala Sangam puja pandal who then immersed their idol sans any fanfare on Wednesday.
Apart from Kala Sangam, Durga Bari was the only other puja that immersed its idol on Wednesday, with all the other committees likely to follow suit on Friday.
Ranchi SSP Saket kumar Singh hailed his men for having put up a commendable show during the festivities.
“We had detained around 100 people, mostly youths, to check instances of eve-teasing. All of them have been released on bonds,” Singh said.
He added that though the festivities were largely peaceful one stray incident of chain snatching had been reported at Kotwali police station.
“We later established that the stolen jewellery was junk,” Singh said.
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