RAMBAN/JAMMU: A 55-year-old man died of burn injuries after a commercial building gutted in a fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban district, officials said on Thursday.
The fire broke out in a building located near a bus stand in Banihal late Wednesday night, trapping a tenant Ghulam Mohammad Tantray, a resident of south Kashmir’s Kokernag, they said.
Tantray suffered critical burn injuries during the rescue operation and was shifted to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries on Thursday, they said.
The building, housing several shops and a small restaurant-cum-hotel, was damaged in the fire, the officials said adding the cause of the fire was not known immediately.
The locals alleged that the fire tenders reached the scene over half an hour late as the vehicles were caught in a traffic jam in the town located along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
The fire and emergency services personnel acted swiftly on reaching the scene by restricting the fire to one building before dousing the flames after several hours of intense firefighting operation, the officials added. (PTI)
