Wood worth 50m afs gutted in Logar fire

PUL-I-ALAM (Pajhwok): Several wood stalls and carpentry shops were reduced to ashes in a huge fire that broke in the capital of central Logar province, an official said on Sunday.

The fire erupted on Saturday night, but the cause could not be ascertained, Logar police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the entire market was gutted in the fire despite hard efforts by police and firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

Police had launched an investigation to determine how the fire broke out, he said, adding, “The fire was so strong that police and firefighters jointly failed to douse it.”

However, the stall owners association called the fire a conspiracy hatched by the Logar mayor and the governor.

The association’s director Haji Baqi Ahmadzai said 19 wood stalls and carpentry shops were destroyed in the fire that caused 50 million afghanis in losses to the owners.

The wood stalls have been set up in the area 13 years ago but no such incident has happened before because neither any fuel station is located nearby nor any electricity line exist there, Ahmadzai said.

He accused Governor Niaz Mohammad Amiri and Mayor Ahmad Khan Ulfat of their involvement in the fire incident and asked the central government to send a delegation for an investigation to unearth the facts.

However, Ulfat denied the allegations, saying their job was to serve people not to destroy their properties.

While, the governor’s spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish also rejected if the governor had a hand in the fire breakout.

He said a thoroughgoing investigation would be carried out to ascertain the cause of the incident.

mds/ma

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