Andhra Pradesh   

1,000 thatched houses gutted

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: About 1,000 huts were destroyed at Swarnabharati Nagar in Guntur in a major fire on Friday afternoon, but there were no casualties as a majority of the residents were away on work. According to eyewitnesses, fire broke out at 12.40 p.m. in a thatched house on the 10th link road of 27th lane in `C' Block of Swarnabharati Nagar, a re-settlement colony for the urban poor. District Fire Officer N. Mohan Rao immediately rushed all the three fire engines in the city to the site and called for a fourth one from Sattenaplli. Gusty winds under overcast conditions, however, helped the fire spread fast from one lane to another giving literally no time to the residents to bring out their belongings from their thatched houses. Only 10 per cent of the residents who were present at the time removed whatever they could from the huts which did not catch fire while some youths did their best to bring water and pour it over thatched roofs.

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