December 7, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 21, 1422

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GILGIT, Dec 6: At least six shops and a huge Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) godown were gutted when fire broke out at Jamatkhana Bazaar on Thursday.

The fire began when owner of Shama Gas Company tried to light a stove for heating purpose but leaking gas from the company cylinders caught fire and engulfed the whole warehouse.

The fire was soon followed by huge blasts of 25 gas cylinders which kept on exploding intermittently, creating panic in the whole city.

A large number of people assembled at the site of the blast and extinguished the fire with whatever means they had. The fire also destroyed six other shops.

After two hours, when SSP Gilgit police reached the scene, along with a fire-brigade vehicle of Civil Aviation Authority as the fire-brigade vehicle of Gilgit Municipal Corporation, has been lying out of order for last six months, the angry people started hurling stones at the police and fire-brigade vehicles for their late arrival.

Police resorted to baton-charge and hide and seek continued between the police and the people for some time.

Four people were injured in the incident, including Mohammad Hussain, a fire-fighter of CAA, witnesses said.

Informed sources told Dawn that the fire-brigade staff of Gilgit had been assigned either different duties or transferred to other departments by the deputy commissioner of Gilgit.