A massive fire swept through Ghana Bazaar area in Itahari Sub-metropolitan City–4 of Sunsari district on Friday night, destroying four houses. A preliminary police investigation suggests properties worth around Rs10 million were destroyed in the incident. The fire broke out from an electric short circuit in a shop at around midnight, police said.

Eleven cooking gas cylinders stored in the shop exploded and the fire quickly spread across the block and engulfed houses belonging to Padam Adhikari, Bal Kumar Rai, Bideshi Kumar Shrestha and Man Kumari Rai.

The locals had called a fire engine stationed just 500 metres from the incident but it did not arrive in time. Fire engines from Inaruwa municipality located 18 km took time to reach the incident site causing such large-scale loss, said local resident Padam Adhikari, who incurred the highest loss in the flame estimated at Rs 4.5 million.

The fire also caused partial damages to two four-story buildings belonging to Laldhan Rai and Mohan Singh Tamang. Laldhan alone incurred a loss of Rs 400,000.

The blaze was finally taken under control by the fire engines dispatched from Inaruwa and Itahari, local residents and the police force.