Nearly six hours after a massive fire swept through Gholdap camp of Jhapa, gutting down 516 huts and displacing about 3,500 Bhutanese refugees, another deadly fire broke out in Sanishchare camp of Morang, burning down 200 huts to ashes and leaving around 2,500 Bhutanese refugees displaced.[break]
At least 29 refugees were injured in a stampede triggered by the fire in Gholdhap. No case of injury has been reported in Sanishchare camp.
The fire destroyed Gholdhap camp, situated in Garamani village-2 of Jhapa, about two weeks before its merger with another refugee camp in Beldangi. Following the departure of many refugees for the US under third country resettlement program initiated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR), Gholdap camp was all set to be merged with Beldangi.
“I lost everything in the fire when I was preparing to leave this camp,” said Nar Bahadur Barakoti of Sector D-1 of Gholdhap camp. “The fire destroyed my hut, gutted down my property. I could save only my life. Nothing else.”
Like Barakoti, most of refugees could not save their properties because the fire, supposedly triggered by cooking gas leak in one of the huts, swiftly swept through Gholdap camp. The fire was spurred by forceful wind. It took nearly four hours for locals and firefighters to douse the fire.
All refugees, displaced by the fire, have been kept in nearby schools. About 70 students, who are preparing to appear in the upcoming SLC exams, have been left in the lurch. Their preparations for exams have been badly affected.
The fire has partly damaged local offices of the UNHCR and the World Food Program (WFP). However, some depots of the WFP are safe. This is the second deadly outbreak of fire in Gholdap camp since in the last three years. Earlier in March of 2008, over 1200 huts had been gutted by fire in Gholdhap.
In Sanischare camp, apart from refugees´ huts, offices of Camp Management Committee (CMC), Refugee Coordination Unit (RCU) and Reconciliation Center have been badly damaged. The office of Lutheran World Federation has also been partly damaged. The fire was doused collectively by security personnel, locals and refugees. It took them one and a half hour to extinguish the fire.
“The fire spread through the camp so quickly that our huts turned into ashes in front of our own eyes. We could not save our properties,” Harka Bahadur Budhthoki said.
As fire brigades of Damak municipality had reached Gholdhap, they could not reach Sanischare on time, forcing security personnel to destroy more than 30 huts to prevent the fire from further spreading.
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