Baripada/Jagatsinghpur: At least 31 houses were gutted in two separate incidents in Mayurbhanj and Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha rendering several families homeless last night.
In the first instance, sparks erupted in Sialinai village under Karanjia block of Mayurbhanj district late yesterday night at the residence of a displaced family of Similipal and later spread to 26 more houses in the neighbourhood.
Fire spread very rapidly as the displaced families had been accommodated in temporary thatched houses and engulfed the whole area before fire tenders arrived at the spot reducing assets worth lakhs into ashes.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
In a similar incident on January 22, at least 16 houses of the displaced families had been gutted to ashes in the same village, putting a question mark on the safety and security of the displaced families.
Later in the night, fire engulfed Barik Sahi in Fakirpada village under Balikuda block of Jagatsinghpur and burned down houses of Basudev Barik, Batakrushna Barik, Rabindra Barik and Bapi Barik.
Fire brigade teams from Jagatsinghpur led by P Jagannath Rao rushed to the spot and doused the blaze in a Herculean effort.
Ms Kalinga