Massive fire at Lok Nayak Bhavan, no casualties

A massive fire broke out at the Lok Nayak Bhavan on Monday afternoon, which houses the offices of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department.

The fire broke out at the fourth floor of the building and no casualties were reported from the spot.

Delhi Fire Services (DFS) managed to control the fire in less than two-and-a-half hours and cooling operations were on at the time of writing this report. However, fire officials are yet to comment on the extent of damage and will survey the building premises.

Sources in DFS said that the office of Income Tax Settlement Commission located on the fourth floor sustained maximum damage.

"We received the call for fire around 4 pm. We deputed 25 fire tenders to the spot and later sent an additional three fire tenders," said Atul Garg, Deputy Fire Chief, DFS.

Eyewitnesses said that the fire broke out half an hour before the call.

"We spotted the smoke around 3.30 pm. Thankfully they vacated us in time. The firefighters tried to douse the flames using cranes," said an eyewitness.

Smoke was seen engulfing the building and rising up several feet in the air. Many people present in the building took the emergency fire exits and managed to get out of harm's way.

Firefighters also rescued some people who were reportedly trapped on the fourth floor. None of them sustained any major injuries.

"We evacuated 4-5 people from the fourth floor. The fire did not spread beyond the fourth floor," said a fireman.

DFS began conducting cooling operations on Monday evening and will look into the cause of the fire.

It is suspected that a short circuit in the air conditioning unit may have caused the blaze. "We have to wait for the arson report before looking at the cause and extent of damage," said a DFS official.