A fire broke out at an enclosure located in Sector 4 of Mahakumbh Nagar here, officials said on Friday.
According to the officials, the fire broke out late night on Thursday. At least one person with injuries was rescued and sent to a medical facility in an ambulance close to midnight last night.
Multiple fire tenders were rushed in around 11.30 pm on Thursday.
Even a day after the culmination of the Maha Kumbh 2025 on February 26, people continued to flock to the Triveni Sangam and a crowd of onlooker began to gather as fire tenders reached the site of the accident after crossing the ceremonial Nandi Dwar.
There was no official word on the nature of the fire yet or its cause.
The fire that broke out in an enclosure near the Shastri Bridge has been contained, a fire department personnel on duty told PTI close to midnight.
The old man who was rescued, had a wound over his nose and one of his hands smeared in spot.
PTI tried speaking to him while he sat in the ambulance, but he appeared to be in a state of shock.
Chief Fire Officer of Mahakukbh Nagar, Pramod Sharma, in the early hours of Friday said, "The fire broke out in a sanitation colony located in Sector 4 (of the Mahakumbh Nagar), around 11.30 pm. It was a 'chholdari' tent (basic tent)." One person was injured in the accident, he said.
The injured man, who later identified himself as Bihari Lal, 73, and a native of Prayagraj district, narrated the chain of events as he showed the burn injuries sustained in his right hand.
"I came back to the enclosure after they gave me medical aid," he said.
"Five 'chholdari' tents were there which got gutted. I was in one of them along with another person who was asleep. I had returned from bathroom to my tent and was trying to sleep when the incident happened. I don't know how it started," Lal told PTI in the early hours of Friday.
He said, he and others tried to wake him up, but in vain, and presumably got injured in the accident.
Inside the enclosure, a couple of other 'chhodari' tents are there, and one of the two men sitting inside it, said he and other people who are staying in this tent are staffers who were deployed for the mega festival for sprinkling water on chequered plates laid in Mela area to create temporary pathways.
He claimed the other tents were empty, and that besides Lal, the other person who was sharing the tent with him has "also suffered injuries and was sent to a hospital".
However, there is no official confirmation yet on this.
A few motors and sprinkler pipes could be seen lying inside the enclosure.
On the gutted side, burnt articles, tarred steel plates and a coiled sprinkle pipe, could be seen lying on the ground.
A visitor from Chennai, who also went near the site of the accident around 11:30 pm on Thursday after seeing fire tenders being rushed there, said, "The old man who suffered injuries in hand, was crying while sitting in a corner of the enclosure before being rescued. I even tried speaking to him when he was being taken to an ambulance".
Maha Kumbh takes place at the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati in Prayagraj.
Shastri Bridge is located across Ganga river.
The religious spectacle that takes place once in 12 years, began on January 13 (Paush Purnima) and saw grand processions of Naga Sadhus and three 'Amrit Snans'. It ended with the final auspicious 'snan' on Mahashivratri on Wednesday.
Over 66 crore people took the holy dip at the Triveni Sangam during the course of the Maha Kumbh mela.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
