Inferno: One dead, five injured in Lakki Marwat

Six residential quarters gutted in Mansehra

MANSEHRA/ LAKKI MARWAT: At least one person died and five others were injured when a fire broke out at a village in Lakki Marwat on Saturday. Separately, six residential quarters of Patrind Hydropower Project (PHP) in Mansehra were gutted after a fire erupted due to a short-circuit.

Engulfed in flames

An insider privy to the development told The Express Tribune, a woman died while five others were injured in Langar Khel Pacca village in Lakki Marwat.

“The fire was caused by a collision between a high-tension line and a low-tension line,” he said. “This sent electrical waves to nearby houses.”

According to the insider, the flames engulfed five houses and a school building. “The buildings were damaged,” he said. However, the cause and manner of the woman’s death has yet to be determined.

Families stranded inside the houses were evacuated by the locals and the injured were rushed to the hospital.

Gutted

Six residential quarters of Patrind Hydropower Project (PHP) were gutted when a fire broke out. The fire was caused by a short-circuit in one of the buildings.

According to an official of Garhi Habibullah police, the flames erupted from a residential quarter for staff engaged in construction work at PHP. However, it eventually spread and engulfed the five other buildings as well.

Garhi Habibullah SHO Yasir Khan told The Express Tribune, “There was a dearth of firefighting facilities on the premises. Locals and staff members made futile attempts to extinguish the flames. However, the inferno had reduced all six residential quarters to ashes along with all the belongings inside them.”

PHP staff remained unhurt.

The hydropower project is being constructed on Jhelum River on 212 kanals of land at a cost of US$400 million aimed at generating 147 megawatts of electricity.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2016.