A fire caused by a suspected electric short-circuit gutted around half-a-dozen shops at the steel city’s commercial hub Sakchi on Friday.

It took around two hours for the fire tenders of the state fire department and Tata Steel to bring the blaze under control.

Timely action by the fire department minimised damages to a great extent.

District fire service officials said they were informed about the fire around 3.10 pm, and the fire tenders reached the spot within five minutes.

The fire tenders had no problem in entering the spot of the mishap behind Shitla Mandir close to the Tank Road as because of the extended lockdown all shops were closed by 2 pm.

The fire broke out at a vegetable shop and soon spread to a grocery store, an eatery and a few other shops.

The loss caused by the fire could not be immediately estimated. But, sources in Sakchi market said the loss would be somewhere between Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakh .

An affected shop-owner selling vegetables said, "The fire was caused by a suspected short-circuit. I had closed my shop at 2pm and went home. As I was about to take my lunch I got a phone call about the fire mishap."

A chaos prevailed at the market soon after the fire detection.

Most of the shopkeepers had left for their homes after closing their shops at 2 pm.

Officer-in-charge of Sakchi police station, Kunal Singh, along with other officers was present at the spot.

This was the third fire that broke out at Sakchi in the past five months.

On December 19, a similar fire caused by a bonfire gutted around a dozen shops at the Jalebi Line close to the fish market.

Another fire broke out at the Sakchi market on January 18 which gutted several shops resulting in a huge loss.