Dolakha, April 6

Masini Sapkota Pande of Bhimeshwor Municipality-3 in Dolakha has been left in the lurch after a fire reduced her house to ashes yesterday.

She had left the house to fetch vegetables by lighting fire in her firewood stove in the morning. But, when she returned, she saw that her house was engulfed in fire. According to locals, the 82-year-old single woman had fainted upon seeing her house on fire.

“I’m a single woman and don’t have any relatives and no one to ask for help. Where will I go now?” lamented the woman, adding that she didn’t have anything to eat after the incident.

After her house was destroyed in earthquake three years ago, she had been staying in a temporary shelter set up by the Nepali Army. Now with the shelter destroyed in fire, she is left without a roof over her head.

Police said property worth five lakh rupees was gutted. “The fire reportedly destroyed jewellery and clothes,” said Ramesh Pradhan, chief at District Police Office, Dolakha.

As for immediate relief, Nepal Red Cross Society Dolakha provided her clothes and food items.