“The book house was a treasure not only for Nepalis but for the entire Asians. Many precious books were there,” said a local Bikram Rauniyar. “It feels very bad to see it turn into ashes. We cannot forget the incident until the place is cleaned up and new setting replaces this,” he added. [break]
Owner of the Faces Lounge Ram Giri said that he has not slept since the day of accident. He feels that he has lost everything in life. “I had started it just 8 months ago. It was going so well. I was taking care of the business with all my heart. But it has turned to ashes in no time,” he said.
The fire is said to have been started by a short circuit at the restaurant Thursday night.
The situation had turned out of control after the fire caught gas cylinders and generators and spread to the book house and another outlet Shisha Café. After 9 hours of efforts made by the fire fighters it had subsided but it was not fully extinguished till today morning. There was still a thick smoke till noon.
Eyewitness of the incident, Badri Phunyal, who was busy cleaning the book house, stated that a gas cylinder which had caught fire fell off the roof of the house. “Following a sound of blast of another cylinder, I ran out and within few seconds everything was burnt,” Phunyal, a security guard at the book house said.
Sanjay Shrestha and Amar Bahadur Shrestha, joint owners of the café, were also regretting the fact that they had not insured their business. “We had set up the business with hard earned money. We could re-start it, if we get support from somewhere,” they said.
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