Five houses caught fire at a densely populated area of Tahanani, nearby Itumbahal in the capital, Kathmandu, on Friday evening (April 16, 2010). Nagariknews, one of the top newspaper in Nepal published the news about the fire. The media house publishes Nagarik (Nepali) and Republica (English) newspapers. The same news in the two newspapers have different news.

Republica says that  the fire broke out from Prem Maharjan’s house but Nagariknews says it was Maharatna Maharjan. Republica says the fire was controlled in 2 hours but Nagarik says it took 4 hours to control the fire. I have posted the screenshot for comparison below.

What ever may be the case, it is a sad thing. The authorities should take action to make every houses accessible for such purposes. They should at least do a detailed survey and prepare an emergency plan for security and such accidents.

The fire trucks couldn’t get in the narrow streets, so long pipes had to be used to transport water. While extending the pipes the pipe broke and some pipes had holes in them so the fire controlling act was delayed considerably.

Although, the fire trucks from Kathmandu Fire brigade, Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Lalitpur Municipality, and Airport along with more than 30 private water tankers helped to contain the fire they couldn’t control before the fire engulfed 5 houses.

It is good to know that there was no human casualty but, the material loss is yet to be ascertained. Following photo of the fire from Nagariknews. More photos are posted here.

While searching, I found a video of the locality where the fire broke out. Although the video is not that good quality-wise it gives general idea of the locality.