Four families were rendered homeless after their joint 3-storey house was gutted in a major fire at Bantokhar Mohalla Hazari Bazar Rainawari Srinagar last night, locals and officials said on Saturday.

Soon after the fire erupted in the house, people called fire and emergency department. Locals said that fire erupted from the first story and soon engulfed the entire building.

The fire tenders reached the spot immediately and contained the flames from spreading further. However, by the time the fire was doused off, the house was completed gutted.

Four families of Fayaz Ahmad Shah, Nazir Ahmad Shah, Ghulam Rasool Shah and Noor Mohammad Shah were putting up in the house and they lost “everything” in the devastating fire, the cause of which not known immediately.

“The fire started at 12:30 a.m and we lost everything,” Ghulam Rasool Shah told a local news agency, Kashmir Dot Com (KDC). He said four families were putting up in the house.

An official of the fire and emergency department told KDC that timely action prevented the fire from spread in the congested locality.

He said there was no loss of life or injury in the incident.

A police official told KDC that cause of fire is being investigated.