Assam: Inferno Erupts in Guwahati’s Kalapahar After Cylinder Explosions, Engulfs Nearby Mosque

GUWAHATI: A devastating fire broke out in Guwahati's busy Kalapahar area yesterday afternoon on September 18 following a series of powerful cylinder explosions. The incident in a house at Gopinath Nagar created shock waves in the community and resulted in chaos as the fire spread rapidly in the neighborhood.

According to eyewitnesses, several cooking gas cylinders detonated one after another inside the house, leading to the fire. The blasts were said to be deafening, accompanied by black plumes of thick smoke, which rose high into the sky, understandable from miles away. In no time at all, the fires had reduced the building to a smoldering wreck, with little left standing in their wake.

However, that was not the end of it. The intensity of the blaze made the fire spread to other buildings on adjacent structures, of which one was a mosque. This alarmed the locales even more because this was a very densely populated area containing numerous residences. Incredibly, people ran out of their homes in an effort to save themselves from what seemed possibly going to go beyond the populated area.

Emergency fire teams responded in no time. Fighting crews, with several fire trucks, staged a coordinated firefighting operation. Their job is not an easy one, as the fire is enormous, producing billows of smoke that make work difficult, and with extreme heat that interferes in their operations. Nevertheless, fire crews are working day and night to put out the disaster, but have been able to keep it contained so that it does not continue to destroy more houses and businesses.

One local resident described the scene as terrible, saying, "It felt like a bomb went off. The explosions shook the entire street, and within minutes, everything was on fire."

While destruction was immense, with heavy property damage reported all over the area, the effect is slightly lessened with reported injuries or casualties at the time of reporting. Authorities have also hailed the fast-paced evacuation of locals that may well have salvaged what would otherwise be an even more tragic event.

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