A butter lamp shed at Kuensel Phodrang in Thimphu was razed to the ground yesterday in a fire that started around 12.25pm. No casualty was reported.

The shed is located a few meters from the statue of Buddha Dhodenma. The fire is suspected to have started from a short circuit at the Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB) located inside a temporary restroom. The butter lamp room was separated from the restroom by a Corrugated Galvanised Iron (CGI) sheet. The room had 10 oil tins to light butter lamp.

An eyewitness said no one was inside the shed when the incident occurred. An explosion of a Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder burned the shed to debris. Another eyewitness Tandin Gyeltshen said, “The laborers here were throwing water and sand on the fire but the fire was too large to be contained.”

When the Thimphu Fire Brigade (TFB) reached the scene, the fire had burnt the CGI sheets, furniture worth of Nu 30,000 and 250cft wooden planks. “The fire was reported very late and when we reached the scene, there was nothing left,” a fire fighter Sonam Cheda said. The fire fighters extinguished the embers for safety.

Staff reporter