One person was killed and around five persons were injured in a fire that broke out in an akhara in the Maha Kumbh Mela in the early hours of Friday.
Around 30 makeshift tents were also gutted. The fire broke out at 2 a.m., just hours before the akharas marched in procession to the Sangam for the Basant Panchami Shahi Snan (royal bath), Divisional Commissioner Devesh Chaturvedi said.
The victim has been named as 72-year-old Mahavir Prasad from Rajasthan. The administration has announced Rs 2 lakh as compensation to his family, while others who have received burn injuries will received Rs 25,000 each.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire spread to the adjoining tents after a two-wheeler went ablaze in the initial fire. Several motorbikes were also engulfed in the fire.
The straw spread on the ground compounded the flame.
While others rushed out to save themselves leaving behind their belongings, Mr. Prasad could not escape, sources said.
As a precaution, the administration had cleared Kali Marg, the site of the fire, and shifted the pilgrims to elsewhere.
Officials added that the fire in the ashram of the Mahamandelshwar of the Maha Nirvani akhara in sector 4 could have been triggered by a short-circuit. The fire was brought under control after seven fire tenders were pressed immediately into service.
In another incident, around 10 tents were gutted in a fire in sector 9 late on Thursday. No injuries were reported.
There have been half-a-dozen fire related incidents in the mega event, including one on January 25 that claimed one life and left 18 injured. An LPG cylinder leakage triggered the fire, officials had said, after which the administration had circulated a list of do’s and don’t.
Friday's fire comes only five days after 36 people, including 29 women and a girl-child, were killed and at least 39 injured in a stampede in Allahabad Railway Station on Sunday. The station was teeming with thousands of pilgrims, who were making the journey home after a dip at the Sangam on Mauni Amavasya, the biggest of the Shahi Snans.
Keywords: Maha Kumbh Mela, Kumbh Mela 2013, fire mishap, Basant Panchami, Shahi Snan
It is a shame that the governments and organizers of the mela cannot control the crowd attending the Kumbh Mela, resulting in stanpedes and numerous deaths and injuries. Kumbh Mela is a death trap. The governments and the organizers of the Kumbh Mela cannot control the crowd of civilians. If government and the organizers of the mela cannot manage civilian crowd, the Kumbh Mela should be banned, to save human lives. The lives in this world are more precious than the future incarnation or the life after death,if any. Now the Kumbh Mela is equivalent to human sacrifices on religious ground.
Stop arranging this kind of any future mela or whatsoever if the administration is not capable of managing such a large gathering! It does not make any sense of attending this kind of mela and getting killed in fire-brokeout, railway bridge collapse etc etc.
This clearly shows our Government don't learn from its mistakes. Our Government seems more concerned about safety and security of president of other nation, singing corrupt military deals, saving business magnets and liquor barons who loot poors. And still we dream to become worlds biggest economy. It's time to wake up before it is too late.
Proves you cannot get rid of your sins by taking a dip in a Holy River. The Brahmins
originally deified the river so that people would respect it as it was needed for
drinking and healthy living. Instead inanimate idols are plastered with milk and ghee
and the river, full of life forms such as fish etc are contaminated with sewage,
pesticides, chemicals and life threatening substances. How many will die from
infections from that dip...only the Creator knows. The Brahmin priests should wake
the public up to this reality and get the government and the entire population to take
a responsibility of treating the river as a Goddess to be loved, respected and
nurtured and not abused with poisons. Though one sadhu did give up his life with a
prolonged fast to save the Ganges but nothing came out of it. Sad state of affairs
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