A massive fire has reduced at least 75 houses to ashes and killed one person in Kanchanpur municipality of Saptari district on Thursday.
Police have identified the deceased as 55-year-old Chalitar Sardar. He was sleeping after having lunch and was trapped inside his own burning house, according to police.
The fire, which was extinguished by three fire engines from Rajbiraj, Inaruwa and Itahari municipalities, has rendered 32 families homeless. They are now taking shelter on the play ground of a local school. Fire engines took more than three hours to douse the fire that had started from a haystack on the backyard of Lalaku Saradar, a local resident.
The fire rapidly spread across the human settlement as most of houses were built of wood and thatched-roof. The Area Police Office of Kanchanpur has estimated that the fire has damaged properties worth around Rs 10 million.
Early this week, a massive fire had reduced 44 houses to ashes in Fungling, the district headquarters of Taplejung. The Fungling fire that started on Monday evening was extinguished only on Tuesday morning as there was no fire engine.