Assam fire: India's longest burning gas blaze is destroying lives

Labanya Saikia, a single mother of three in India's north-eastern state of Assam, lost her house to a raging fire that started from a nearby gas well of the state-run Oil India Limited (OIL) in June.

Also lost in the fire was her tiny shop in Tinsukia district that enabled her to raise the three children. She is confident that the house and the shop could be rebuilt. But Ms Saikia says she is heartbroken at the loss of her late husband's photographs that were gutted in the fire.

"My children will have to grow up without a photograph of their father to look at. After a while, they will probably no longer be able to associate a face to their father's name," Ms Saikia said.

The blaze that started on 9 June, following a gas blowout in Baghjan area, has raged for about 150 days now, making it the longest such fire in India. Three people have died in trying to contain the fire, which initially forced 3,000 people in neighbouring villages to leave their homes and take shelter in makeshift camps.

While most of the people have since returned to their homes, scores of families who were living closer to the site of the fire are still in temporary shelters.