As many as three huts were reduced to ashes and four houses were partially damaged in a fire, rendering seven Dalit families homeless, at Nanjapura near Halebid in Belur on Saturday.
The fire which broke out in the kitchen of one of the huts spread to the other huts. No casualties were reported, as the family members were in in the fields when the incident occurred. Village residents, who witnessed the fire, informed the police and the Fire and Emergency Services. Fire and Emergency Services personnel succeeded in dousing the fire in half an hour.
The families whose houses were gutted lost all their belongings to the fire. Puttaiah, one of the residents, was in grief as valuables his family had purchased for his daughter’s marriage to be held in a few days, were destroyed. N.R. Purushottam, District Social Welfare Officer, told The Hindu on Sunday that the affected families had been provided temporary shelter in an anganwadi and a building belonging to the Education Department.
