
A major fire ripped through an abandoned house located near the Manipur Chief Minister's bungalow in Imphal on Saturday evening. The blaze, which engulfed the former residence of a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, took firefighters over an hour to control.
The house belonged to the late Thangkhopao Kipgen, a former Chief Secretary of Goa who passed away in 2005. The residence had been vacant for over a year after his family vacated the premises. The cause of the fire remains undetermined as of now.
The incident, which occurred around 5:30 pm, sent plumes of smoke billowing into the air, causing panic in the vicinity. No injuries were reported as the house was unoccupied. However, the fire caused significant damage to the structure, with the wooden roof with galvanized tin sheets taking a particularly hard hit.
Firefighters from the Manipur Fire Service rushed to the scene upon receiving the emergency call. The blaze's intensity, coupled with the abandoned state of the house, presented challenges in containing the flames.
This comes as fresh violence erupted in Manipur's Jiribam district, near the Assam border, involving clashes between the Meitei community from the valley and the Hmar tribes from the hills.