Labourer dies in blaze at wholesale market

A labourer was today charred to death while two others sustained serious burns in a blaze at a local wholesale agricultural market, police said.
According to police, items worth an estimated Rs 2 crore were also destroyed in the fire which claimed the life of Janardan, a labourer hailing from Patna in Bihar.
Police said that the deceased and two other labourers had been asleep inside a shed at the wholesale market when the fire broke out.
Meanwhile, Mahesh Khandelwal, one of the many traders whose goods were destroyed in the fire, said that a similar incident had taken place at the market on Holi last year.

He further alleged that despite last year's blaze, no steps for fire safety were taken to prevent a repeat of such accidents at the wholesale market.
When the fire tenders fighting the blaze today ran out of water, they could find no nearby source to replenish their supply, Khandelwal alleged, adding that the damage could have been limited had proper fire safety measures existed.
The traders' body for the market has demanded compensation for the damage from the government failing which it has warned that it would start an agitation.