With Bihar reeling under a severe heat wave, over three dozen people have been killed and nearly 2000 houses gutted in summer fires, stoked by hot winds, according to the State Disaster Management Authority.
While the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav asked the State government to dig wells in villages to douse the fire, the BJP took a dig at him, likening his comments to the “proverbial saying of digging wells when the house catches fire.”
On Monday, two children lost their lives in Patahi Dhumal village of Ujjiyarpur in Samastipur district when their thatched dwellings caught fire.
50 houses destroyedOver 50 houses were destroyed in the incident. Such fires have been reported from Buxar and Saharsha districts with several houses being gutted though no loss of life was reported. On Sunday, three persons were killed and over a thousand mud-and-thatch dwellings were destroyed in four villages of Ramtol, Patori, Kolhanda and Khaparpura in Darbhanga district whereas, fire claimed lives of five people in Saran, four in Lakhisarai, two in Gopalgunj, one each on Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, East Chamapara and Bhojpur districts.
Incidents of fire due to heat-wave have been reported from at least one-and-half a dozen districts of Bihar.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convened a high level meeting with officials of Patna division on Monday to take stock of the fire incidents and discussed remedial measures.
