30 shops gutted in furniture market fire

The fire broke out at the market located near Sector-53 on the Chandigarh-Mohali border late last night and it took six hours for the 19 fire tenders pressed into the operation to control the flames, they said.

The fire started from the central portion in one of the shop rows spread along both sides of the road, Chandigarh's Station Fire Officer, M L Sharma said.

"The fire spread quickly to other shops and we had to struggle to prevent it from spreading further as a lot of combustible material like thinner, kerosene, paint, clothing material, foam mattresses are stored in the shops," he said.

Eleven fire tenders were pressed into service by the Chandigarh Fire Department, while six by neighbouring Mohali and Panchkula and two were provided by the Air Force Station at Chandigarh.