(A painful memory of Goldhap Fire)
March 1, 2008, 6:50 pm is an Unforgettable Night. The sun had dipped behind the mountains and the night had already spread its blanket over the Eastern Nepal. The sky above was clear. Stars had already come out to play in the sky-garden where one was teasing another with their twinkling eyes in joy. Constellations too were in their evening stroll, and the shooting stars were busy playing hide and seek. In Jhapa district, the family members were sharing with each other their day’s summery; children preparing for class ten final exams were immersed in their studies and others were watching television. Suddenly there appeared on the television BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! The telephone began to ring TRING!!!TRING!!! Mobiles
phones began action in their own caller tunes. Those who picked up the phones and those saw television cried, “OH MY GOD! GOLDHAP CAMP IS ON FIRE.” The fire had started from sector D around 6:50 pm, and it was aggravated by the opportunistic wind due to which the fire spread much faster than the inhabitants could imagine. The flame of the fire was so high and wide that it could be seen from 45 kms distance. Above the Goldhap camp, the sky had turned red as the destructive flames of merciless fire swung left and right engulfing one hut after another.
Fr. Varkey Perekkatt, SJ, Fr. Jomon Jose SJ, Mr. Prahlad Dahal, Mr. Mchhichindra Rai and I reached the spot around 9:00 pm. There I saw a heartbreaking scene– 1320 huts, laid out in half a kilometer area, was on fire. Only in the films had I seen such a dreadful scene but there it was in front of my eyes actually.
Hundreds of people were running in the dark; some for their safety, others to search for their family members and still others to help those in need. It was a total chaos. Some were guarding whatever they had saved. Many lost what they had earned for years and most precious among them were the documents and token of remembrance that they had brought from Bhutan, their homeland.
The fire fighting engines arrived a little later but there was no way to get inside the camp to quench the fire. The hungry fire swallowed up 1320 hundred huts made of bamboos and grass in just two and half hours.
Refugees, once more, became refugees in their own camp. Most of the families took shelter in the nearby forest, bamboo bush and in the open field where they had to stay in the cold and windy night without sleep, food, water and clothes. A lady from sector A/1 broke her leg while escaping from the fire. Another lost her six month baby but found the child next morning as some local people had saved it. The pregnant ladies, old and sick were taken to the safer places. 8885 people became homeless during that “Night of Flame.”
After visiting the camp as I was returning home with a heavy heart, I looked towards the sky. The darkness had deepened; there were no constellations, no shooting stars. The stars, which were witnessing the innocents’ suffering that night, were still looking towards the Goldhap camp twinkling their eyes - not in joy now but in tears…
Fr. Peter Jong Lepcha, SJ
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