(From top) A firefighter battles the blaze at Daily Market in Ranchi in the small hours of Wednesday. A fruit vendor returns to the spot later in the day, hoping to find some of his belongings, but has little to salvage from the ash and debris. Tired schoolchildren doze off as their bus gets caught in a traffic snarl at Sujata Chowk with traders blocking Main Road in protest against the fire. Pictures by The Telegraph and Manik Bose

Ranchi, April 21: A late night fire reduced 35 fruit and dry fruit shops at the busy Daily Market to ashes, prompting enraged traders to block Main Road from 7.30am to 1.30pm today to protest against alleged police apathy.

While no vehicles could ply on the one-and-a-half-kilometre stretch between Sujata Chowk and Sarjana Chowk during the blockade, traffic was diverted to Purulia Road, Club Road and East Jail Road, leading to massive jams.

The fire broke out around 12.45am today, from a transformer installed in front of the market. It took 16 fire tenders five hours to bring the blaze under control but not before fruits and dry fruits worth Rs 25 lakh were destroyed.

The shopkeepers alleged that the police did not act on time to stop the fire from spreading across the market that sits on 22 acres. Said shop owner Mohammed Fahim: “The fire broke out at 12.45am and the officer in charge of the local police station, Harendra Kumar Rai, reached the spot at 1.45am and did little to guide firemen.” Rai denied the allegations.

According to him and some constables, the fruit sellers were careless about fire safety. He said had it not been for the initiatives taken by the police, the devastation would have been more severe. He said a similar incident had taken place earlier as well due to the carelessness of the fruit sellers.

To beat the blockade, commuters took parallel roads and lanes to reach their destination, choking those roads in the process. The blockade was finally lifted only at 1.30pm after the district administration facilitated a meeting of a delegation of traders with chief minister Shibu Soren who assured them proper relief after a probe.

Soren asked sub-divisional magistrate Sanjay Singh to submit a report within two days. “I have already asked the circle officer of the town, Asif Ekram, to prepare a list of victims in order to take proper steps for releasing money from the chief minister’s relief fund,” Singh said.

The worst affected by today’s blockade were schoolchildren as dozens of school buses got stuck in the jam for hours. The thirsty children could be seen requesting bus conductors for water.

“I have finished all the water in my bottle and now I am thirsty. Please buy me a bottle, I will ask my mother to pay you when I reach home,” a student of Bishop Westcott School was heard requesting to his bus conductor near Sujata Chowk.

Parents were also seen running around, trying to track where their wards were. Many students of senior classes left their buses and walked home in the blistering afternoon heat.