DUSHANBE, October 10, 2008, Asia-plus  -- A fire that broke out at the Shohmansour market in Dushanbe today morning has been extinguished.  

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Mahmadsaid Karimov, the chief of the main fire directorate within the Ministry of Interior (MoI), said that the fire had destroyed the trading center, Nargis, and three nearby shops (totaling 1,800 square meters) completely.  No injured was reported, according to him.

The fire broke out at the market at around 6:00 a.m.  13 fire crews have worked to put out the fire and they have managed to extinguish it by 12:00.  A special group of a MoI is currently working at the site to investigate the cause of the fire. 

According to the preliminary assessments, the fire destroyed an area of some 2,000 square meters and damage caused by it may exceed one million somoni.

We will recall that a large fire broke out at Dushanbe’s largest merchandise market, Korvon, on August 13, at around 1:00 a.m.  The fire destroyed an area of 2,100 square meters.  Fortunately, no casualties were reported.  Investigation established that the Korvon fire had been caused by arson.