Property worth more than Rs 50 lakh was gutted in a fire that took place in a well-known computer shop of Dhanbad on Wednesday night. The incident came to light at the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday at around 12.30 am and the fire was completely extinguished at around 3.30 am.

The incident happened in Jhaharia Computers situated in Bank More area less than three km away from the Dhanbad district headquarters.

Neighbours who first noticed the smoke coming out of the shop informed the shop owner, Vikash Jhajharia. He informed Prabhat Surolia, President of Bank More Chamber of Commerce, who called the Bank More police station and district fire service at around 1.38 am.

This is the second incident of fire in a computer shop of Bank More area. Last month a similar fire took place in the shop Seven Computers in Tiwari Gali under the Bank More police station area which is less than 500 meters away from Jhajharia Computers.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Thursday, the President of Bank More Chamber of Commerce, Prabhat Surolia said, “I received a call at around 12.45 am from the owner of the computer shop Vikash Jhajharia seeking help to inform fire service and police after which I informed the fire service and police.”

He also added that the fire was completely doused after a two-hour-long operation.

The gutted goods in the burnt shop. Picture by Gautam Dey

A staff of Jhajharia Computers said, “A large number of computers, laptops and accessories were completely burnt to ashes in the fire. We are suspecting short circuit as the probable reason for the fire.”

Notably, the owner of Jhajharia Computers, Vikash Jhajharia along with the three other computer traders of Bank More locality had also received an extortion call of Rs 50 lakh on their mobile phone in name of the banned organization, People’s Liberation Front of India on November 29.

Giving details of the fire fighting operation, district fire officers, Surendra Yadav said, “We received the information about the fire at around 1.38 am and immediately sent a fire tender at the site but gradually sent two more fire tenders and the fire fighting was completed in two hours.”

“One of our fire tenders was stuck up in a drain situated on the roadside near the computer shop as the area is quite congested and we had to bring a crane to lift the fire tender from the drain,” informed Yadav and added that they also faced difficulty in cutting the iron shutter gate of the shop to carry out the fire fighting work.

“We have yet not received any written detail about the loss estimate from the shop owner,” said Yadav and added that he himself was present at the site to supervise the fire fighting operation.