new delhi a fire gutted about 25 shops in chandni chowks katra neel in the walled city on friday morning though there was no loss to life since the fire started in the wee hours of the day goods worth crores stocked in the affected shops were destroyed the fire started around 430 am in one of the shops located on the first floor of a building in the cloth market at katra neel the building houses about 30 shops all of which deal in wholesale cloth some locals spotted smoke billowing from one of the sides and informed the fire brigade about 15 fire tenders were rushed to the spot but the fire could not be doused even after four hours since the electricity supply to the block was not cut off the fire was caused by an electrical shortcircuit so firefighting was very tough till the power supply was disconnected and even after repeated attempts the supply was not cutoff in time as a result the fire spread to all the shops on the first second and third floors of the building said s s dahiya station officer of the daryaganj fire station officials confirmed that about 25 shops on the first second and third floors stocking cloth which is highly inflammable were gutted fortunately there were no casualties since the fire started early in the morning when the shops are closed locals maintain that though this is perhaps the first such incident in this katra it was something that was waiting to happen the area has so many electrical wires which are hanging at a height of barely 10 feet these also include a hightension 440 watt wire moreover the wires are all over 50 years old and have never been replaced whenever anyone wants a new connection all they have to do is pay bribe and pull a wire to their premises said rajinder sharma who stays a few houses away the entire market at katra neel remained closed on friday to ease the work of fire brigade officials since the lane leading to the affected building is very narrow the market will be closed because if the shops open there will be hardly any space for fire fighters sharma added