Gangtok: A fire broke out at one of the galleries of Paljor Stadium in Gangtok in the wee hours of Sunday night
The roof and other materials including sofas and seats near the gymnasium hall of the gallery were completely damaged in the blazing inferno.
As per reports, Sikkim Police’s Sadar Station received the information around 1:45 am from the chowkidar (watchman) present at the stadium premises.
Later, the fire was brought under control by the Sikkim Fire Department. However, the actual cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
“Our initial investigation suggests that the fire have been caused due to some sort of negligence. The cause of the fire could be anything, it may be from an electrical short circuit. However, the wires were kept at a distance from where the fire occurred. The other reason could be that someone may have left a lit cigarette bud near the sofas or someone may have lit a fire in the gallery,” sources in the Fire Department said.
Officials from the Sports Department, who took stock of the situation on Sunday morning, said, “There was a pile of rubber and silica on that side of the gallery which was being used for construction and maintenance of the ground. We fear someone might have left a cigarette bud somewhere there during the football game in the day. The rubber may have caught fire slowly and it has remained unnoticed for hours. The damages, however, are minimal.”
“Around 8-10 metres of the roof were completely gutted in the fire. Ideally, cigarette smoking is banned inside the stadium, but now after this incident, we will initiate strong measures to ban smoking on the premises,” the officials added.
Earlier in the day, the stadium hosted a football game – Sikkim Premier League.
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However, Sikkim Police and Fire Department are investigating the incident.
Paljor Stadium is a football stadium in Gangtok. The stadium is currently home to Sikkim Premier League clubs, and sometimes also hosts lower division games.
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