DUSHANBE, September 8, 2012, Asia-Plus — State-run insurance company, Tojiksughurta, is reportedly ready to pay compensations to vendors who have insured their properties.
Ms. Tahmina Davlatova, the deputy chairperson of Tojiksughurta, told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon that that they have begun to prepare the list of vendors who lost their goods in a deadly fire that occurred at Dushanbe’s biggest merchandise market, Korvon, on the evening of September 5. “Compensations will be paid only to those vendors who insured their properties,” Ms. Davlatova said.
In the meantime, Jamshed Yusufiyon, the deputy head of the National Bank of Tajikistan, noted that heads of commercial banks met on September 6 and they agreed to delay loan payments due by the vendors who lost their goods in the fire.
Korvon owner Nurshed Mashrabov told reporters on September 6 that he will rebuild all shops that were destroyed by the fire on his own. Mashrabov added that the vendors who had lost their goods in the fire would be exempted from paying rent and making other market payments during five years.
We will recall that the deadly fire broke out at the Korvon market Wednesday evening, at a little after five. Witnesses say the fire started in several places. At first, guards and merchants attempted to extinguish the fire on their own, but when the fire spread to several dozen shops the market guards called out the firemen.
Some 30 fire crews were involved in extinguishing the fire at the Korvon market. They managed to put out the fire only in four hours.
The law enforcement authorities said one person was killed in the fire and four others sustained burn wounds.
Some vendors, however, claimed the death toll is much higher. According to unconfirmed information, at least three persons – two men and one woman – were killed in the fire while salvaging their properties.
The blaze destroyed one of the market”s major buildings and numerous trade stands where goods were stored.
Korvon owner considers that the fire was arson.
On September 6, hundreds of vendors who lost their goods in the fire at the Korvon marketplace held a march in the Tajik capital to demand that authorities compensate them for their losses.
