Overview
- A major fire broke out at about 5 a.m. on Sunday in the wooden and tin shops along Mughal Road in Bufliaz market and gutted nearly a dozen businesses with no reported casualties.
- Locals were first on the scene and Army and CRPF personnel joined them to fight the blaze before the Fire and Emergency Services arrived and brought the fire under control within 30 minutes.
- Fire officials’ preliminary probe points to a short circuit in one shop as the likely cause and investigators say the blaze spread rapidly through the vulnerable wooden and tin structures.
- Traders say a fire tender from Surankote reached the site more than an hour after the blaze began and they blame the lack of a local fire station for greater losses.
- Affected shopkeepers are demanding a formal loss assessment, immediate financial aid to rebuild livelihoods, and the establishment of a permanent fire station to improve emergency access in the hilly Poonch district.