Relief effort launched as Indian village burns down

A huge fire destroyed a remote mountainous village in the Indian portion of Kashmir, devastating all the 160 wooden homes and injuring nearly 100 people, an official said today.

Police believe that bonfires used by local residents to keep themselves warm in chilly weather caused the devastation on Monday night in Margi, a village 155 miles north of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state.

All the 350 families in the village lost their homes, deputy commissioner Shahid Inayatullah said.

“One hundred and sixty houses, one mosque, one school and nearly 60 cattle sheds were gutted (by the fire),” Inayatullah said.

A poor road network to the remote mountainous region hampered relief operations, he said.

Yesterday, two air force helicopters carried 100 tents, 240 blankets, 25 sleeping bags, medicines and teams of doctors and paramedics to the fire-ravaged village, Inayatullah said.

The fire died down after reducing the village homes to ashes, Inayatullah said.