The resolve
and resilience of society and citizens, and true qualities of an individual are
tested during emergency! Gelephu has lived up to it twice that I know of. In
both it deserves solid A, if not A+, in my opinion, considering the situation here.
First when
Deosiri bridge in India was washed away and Gelephu was cut off from India last year in
August, the Gelephu people got together, raised funds, mobilized manpower, construction
plants and equipment without waiting for concerned authorities to take prompt action. The road
link connecting Gelephu with Indian National Highway NH31, that provides gateway to north-east India, was opened in couple
of weeks. Left to concerned authorities
the road would have opened only a week ago in the first week of April 2014,
after nine months.
Second, there was fire in Gelephu last night, 21 April 2014. I live on 4th floor of a building on Jangchub Lam (Jangchub street) in Gelephu city. As I was about to get into bed at around 9:10 pm, I heard police whistles all over and people shouting. I looked out of my bedroom window. There was fire blazing at the top floor (3rd floor) of the buildings on Norkhil Lam. I could not place the exact location. Norkhil Lam is in east-west direction and is perpendicular to Jangchub Lam. I rushed out and saw from the chorten that the roofs of two buildings had caught fire, barely 40 m away from my building. At that moment, there was a big bang, perhaps burst of an liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder. The fire may have started from one of the buildings about 15/20 minutes earlier and there was every chance that fire could spread quickly in both east and west-wards because the buildings are so very close to each other.
At 9:15 pm Gelephu Thromde’s sewerage vehicle, skylift (used
for fixing the street lights), ambulance and blue police Hiluxes arrived. After
some time Fire Brigade arrived. At the back, roofs of three buildings (two
buildings I saw from front and one more building in the east) were burning. So
fire brigade started to fight at the back from vegetable market. Thromde’s sewerage vehicle was pumping water from nearby fire hydrant and spraying water from skyjack to the front of the burning buildings. The blaze was huge, so people in the skyjack could
not bear the heat to go nearer and water
pressure was not enough to reach the gap between burning building and next building in the west.
At around 9:30 pm all lights were put off. The sewerage vehicle water pipe was dropped to the ground from the skyjack. People tried hitting water jet from ground but could not reach the blaze on 3rd floor. Some shouted, ‘do not waste water!’ The gutter and roof of adjacent building in west started to catch fire.
At around 9:30 pm all lights were put off. The sewerage vehicle water pipe was dropped to the ground from the skyjack. People tried hitting water jet from ground but could not reach the blaze on 3rd floor. Some shouted, ‘do not waste water!’ The gutter and roof of adjacent building in west started to catch fire.
It was around 9:40
pm, I was in the front line without my realization. Suddenly I saw three people on 3rd
floor varendah of the building in the west which everyone was desperate to protect
from adjacent fire. Then I shouted on top of my lungs, “drop a rope and take
the water pipe up.” I shouted three times. People saw the logic then hundreds
of people shouted “drop a rope”. The
guys at the top could not find a rope. They tore curtain and joined. Water pipe
was pulled up with curtain-rope. Water jet hit from 3rd floor varendah
was able to reach roof-edge and gap in-between the buildings. At 9:50 pm Royal
Bhutan Army (RBA) arrived with 100+ strong soldiers and started controlling thousands of people gathered around the blazing buildings. Fire fight continued.
By around 10:10 pm fire was contained from
spreading east and west-wards but top floors of three buildings continued to
burn inside. The fire did not catch on lower floors mainly because the Syntex water tanks on top floors burnt and water spilled on the floors. Fortunately the night was calm. There was no strong wind. At
10:15 pm Bhutan Power Corporation switched-on the lights in Gelephu except in
Norkhil Lam. Another fire brigade arrived at 10:35 pm and started fighting fire
from the front. By 11:40 pm all fires were put-off. Ambulance, Fire Brigade and
RBA were withdrawn. Many people remained at site, shocked in seeing fire engulfing
structures right in front of their eyes.
Fire was put-off in about 2 hours, what could have been much worst scenario in
Gelephu. Who said what and who did what at the critical juncture is not
important. What is important is what was the combined outcome. Gelephu once again showed
solid resolve and resilience to face emergency and come out strong, for perhaps
the rest of the country to observe and learn.
Hats-off to Thromde, Fire Brigade, Police, RBA and last but certainly not the least to the Gelephu people !
Is this a sign that Gelephu thinks cooperation, positive influence and compassion rather than negative characteristics (jealousy, hatred, suspicion, polarization...) is the way to go? Time will tell!
