Students of the Pinegrove School escaping the fire. Thick smoke from the blaze had made it difficult for the students to breathe.
A timely action by the fire brigade brought the blaze under control but smoke from the flames engulfed the small picturesque town 72 kms from Shimla.
While hundreds of hectares of forest have been destroyed by forest fire in Uttarakhand, around 3,000 hectares of the forests in Himachal have been destroyed due to the fires.
Smoke engulfs the school as the trees in the surrounding hills catch fire.
Such has been the blaze that some parts of the Kalka-Shimla railway line too were affected.
But some reports stated that there could be human action behind the fires. Tracts of land near the forests are often set of fire to assist in softer grass growth after rains. That fire often touches nearby forests and bellows into an inferno of mammoth proportions.
Forest fire in Pauri, Uttarakhand that broke a couple of hours ago. pic.twitter.com/AO3yoS9fAz — ANI (@ANI_news) May 2, 2016
Forest fire in Pauri, Uttarakhand that broke a couple of hours ago. pic.twitter.com/AO3yoS9fAz
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 2, 2016