Saturday, May 09, 2009

Two more Gurdwaras get burnt in UK...

Only recently Sikhs were devastated knowing that Bow Gurdwara in East London had been burnt down and Sri Guru Granth Sahib jee's pavitar saroops had been reduced to ash in the fire. Sadly, in the past few days there have been two more Gurdwara fires in the UK.


On Wednesday 6th May at 11.30pm, Gurdwara Sri Guru HarKrishan Sahib Ji in Greater Manchester caught fire. The ground floor offices and the first floor (the Langar Hall) of the Gurdwara Sahib were destroyed. An investigation is under way but the fire is not thought to be suspicious. Thankfully, with Guru jee's kirpaa, the Darbaar Sahib and Sri Guru Granth Sahib jee's saroops were left untouched by the fire.

Photos of the burnt Gurdwara Sahib building (from Sikh World TV wordpress):





Coincidentally the next day, a Gurdwara Sahib in Doncaster caught fire after a large quantity of plastic pallets went up in flames at the trading estate where the Gurdwara in situated. The fire-fighters spent two hours tackling the blaze and are treating the incident as suspicious. It is thought the blaze started after a number of plastic loading pallets belonging to the Big Red Shed specialist distributors company were set alight in an area between the Gurdwara Sahib and another building. So far there have been no reports whether the Darbaar Sahib and Sri Guru Granth Sahib jee's saroops have been affected by the fire or not.


Hearing this sad news, it should be a wake up call for the Sikh community to rethink about the safety and protection of our Gurdwara Sahibs. What fire precautions are in place at our local Gurdwara Sahibs? These tragic incidents can be avoided with forward-thinking and planning. Guru Kirpaa kare.


News links:
- Huge blaze destroys Sikh Temple
- Intruders start blaze at trading estate

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think sikh sangat needs to be more aware and careful while handling the fire in gurudwaras. the sewadars should be given proper training to deal with fire.

Anonymous said...

I think that Gurdwaras that have been newly built would have fire precautions, i.e. fire proof doors, fire escape plans, and policies in place. However, Gurdwaras with older buildings perhaps might not have those things in place.

K Kaur said...

I think all the gurudwaras should have fire proof doors leading to eac seperate hall and also fire alarms and sprinklers should be in place. People just want the gurudwara to look beautiful and yeh fire doors are ugly but does the look really matter when there are more important things like safety and babji di beed..definatly sprinklers and ALL DOORS should be fire proof doors..maybe also CCTV if the fires are suspicious then people can be caught out andbe punished..cuz to be honest here its prbably a bunc of chavs with no respect for other cultures!

parwinder said...

First of all, this is a planned event. He/She cannot run from God's justice. Installing cameras at all gurudwaras would a better idea.

Anonymous said...

waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ke feteh!!
i am speaking on behalf of the gurdwara in doncaster the gudwara is ok it has not been harmed the fire was about 100 yards away it was out of the gurdwara complex!! waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ke feteh!!!!

Anonymous said...

I think anyone who causes any damage to the guru granth sahib will get punished by the 1 and only 1....they will suffer the consequences