Three houses and nearly a dozen shops along with two vehicles were reduced to ashes when a fire broke out in a Neelum Valley locality late Friday night, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Saturday.

Millions of rupees worth of valuables were destroyed in the fire incident occurred in the Sandooq Bazaar area of Neelum Valley.

The raging fire burnt a Suzuki Bolan car and a motorbike as well.

Adding insult to injury, locals were not able to inform the rescue authorities as there were no mobile signals in that area because of the location of the Neelam Valley which is close to Line of Control.

Rescue fire hydrants reached the site many hours later and extinguished the blaze after a five-hour-long operation.

Neelum Valley deputy commissioner and superintendent of police also rushed to the site and supervised the rescue operation.

Reporter Ashfaq Abbasi