(Updated with details)
KATHMANDU, Oct 26: A massive fire broke out in a building at Maru Ganeshsthan, Basantapur, on Monday afternoon, leaving 14 persons injured.
According to an eyewitness, the fire engulfed the five-storey building after a gas stove in the Kasthamandap Mo Mo Center exploded at approximately 4:00 p.m. The fire completely damaged the eatery. [break]
The injured, including five females, mostly seemed to have received burns in limbs. They were rushed to Bir Hospital for treatment. Five students from Camelia School, Kuleshwar, who had entered the restaurant after buying books, were also caught in the fire and were later found receiving treatment at the hospital in school uniforms.
The sudden fire made the persons inside the restaurant jump off the windows to save their lives. The house is owned by Ashok Tuladhar and rented by Ghamanda Bahadur Karki to run the eatery. Karki himself jumped out from the third floor and his wife, who followed him, is also injured, according to Santa Bir Lama, an employee at the eatery.
“The patients are out of danger,” Dr Pandav Baral, emergency ward in-charge of the hospital said. Niraj Tamang, a restaurant staff, who was found at the hospital receiving treatment for normal burn at hands, said he ignited the stove after the owner, who was fully aware of the leaking gas pipe, ordered to do it.
Thick clouds of smoke surrounded the area as the Kathmandu Fire Brigade along with teams from Nepal Army´s Shardul Battalion and Nepal Police controlled the fire. The Lalitpur Fire Brigade later joined the scene.
Though three fire engines from the Kathmandu Brigade reached the spot within five minutes after the incident, it wasn´t able to douse the fire immediately as the Electricity Authority office took much time to disconnect power-supply, said Basudev Henguju, a senior fire-fighter of the Kathmandu Fire Brigade.
A total of 36 Brigade personnel were mobilized to extinguish the fire and it took them over one and a half hour and six tankers of water to finish with. “Delay in power-cut and the inflammable oily stuff at the ground floor´s sweet store made the flames rise up,” added Henguju.
