Major fire in city’s two busiest commercial hubs
26 Aug 2014 11:01 PM GMT
Power overload, negligence and faulty wirings top the list of probabilities that could have caused the ‘mysterious’ fire. ‘There were no casualties reported and there was nobody to rescue as there was hardly anyone at the time of the incident,’ said GC Mishra, the chief fire official.
As narrated by another fire official, at around 7:50 am on Monday, Delhi Fire Services received a call and were told that smoke was billowing out from the windows of a building in Connaught Place. Soon it turned out to be a massive fire, which had originated from the NIIT centre and had already taken the adjacent gym in its grasp.
As many as 15 fire trucks were deployed to bring the fire under control, which was finally extinguished at around 3 pm and a cooling operation was launched soon after.
The cause of the fire remained a mystery till the end of the operation. Apparently it was because of a short circuit at the server room of the training centre, but senior officials refused to take that as the reason behind the fire without further investigation.
‘The first problem in most of the blocks of Connaught Place is power overload, which means installing AC and other appliances leading to excess power consumption, way beyond what is permitted to each showroom,’ said Manish Gogia, who owns a telecom business in the A-Block of Connaught Place.
He further said, this year there have been many cases of AC blasts in the A-Block showrooms, which were not taken too seriously. The same ignorance applies to the uncovered high voltage wires on the side of the building.
‘The issue of power overload and neglected wires have very high possibilities of being the cause of this massive fire. However, this case demands further investigation to draw any conclusions,’ said AK Sharma, director of the Delhi Fire Services.
‘And I refuse to take such conclusions that such a massive fire was the result of a short-circuit that just happened somehow,’ he added.
There was only one set of stairs, which led to the server room of the NIIT centre. There was no emergency exit as such.
‘Fire officials had to break the walls of the building from one side, while making an entry through the main door and windows (most of them blocked by closets and shelves) seemed impossible,’ said the chief fire official.
Ground report
After receiving the call at 7:50, two fire trucks were sent immediately from the nearest fire station at Barakhamba Road, and soon it was discovered to be a massive fire. More fire tenders were summoned immediately from the fire stations at Rani Jhansi Road and the one near Bhikaji Cama Place.
When the situation was still tense and the fire was uncontrollable, two more fire tenders were deployed from the fire station at Pusa Road, which reached the spot at around 8:30 am.
Two skylifts were deployed. While one came from Barakhamba the fire station , the other came from Bikhaji Cama Place.
As narrated by another fire official, at around 7:50 am on Monday, Delhi Fire Services received a call and were told that smoke was billowing out from the windows of a building in Connaught Place. Soon it turned out to be a massive fire, which had originated from the NIIT centre and had already taken the adjacent gym in its grasp.
As many as 15 fire trucks were deployed to bring the fire under control, which was finally extinguished at around 3 pm and a cooling operation was launched soon after.
The cause of the fire remained a mystery till the end of the operation. Apparently it was because of a short circuit at the server room of the training centre, but senior officials refused to take that as the reason behind the fire without further investigation.
‘The first problem in most of the blocks of Connaught Place is power overload, which means installing AC and other appliances leading to excess power consumption, way beyond what is permitted to each showroom,’ said Manish Gogia, who owns a telecom business in the A-Block of Connaught Place.
He further said, this year there have been many cases of AC blasts in the A-Block showrooms, which were not taken too seriously. The same ignorance applies to the uncovered high voltage wires on the side of the building.
‘The issue of power overload and neglected wires have very high possibilities of being the cause of this massive fire. However, this case demands further investigation to draw any conclusions,’ said AK Sharma, director of the Delhi Fire Services.
‘And I refuse to take such conclusions that such a massive fire was the result of a short-circuit that just happened somehow,’ he added.
There was only one set of stairs, which led to the server room of the NIIT centre. There was no emergency exit as such.
‘Fire officials had to break the walls of the building from one side, while making an entry through the main door and windows (most of them blocked by closets and shelves) seemed impossible,’ said the chief fire official.
Ground report
After receiving the call at 7:50, two fire trucks were sent immediately from the nearest fire station at Barakhamba Road, and soon it was discovered to be a massive fire. More fire tenders were summoned immediately from the fire stations at Rani Jhansi Road and the one near Bhikaji Cama Place.
When the situation was still tense and the fire was uncontrollable, two more fire tenders were deployed from the fire station at Pusa Road, which reached the spot at around 8:30 am.
Two skylifts were deployed. While one came from Barakhamba the fire station , the other came from Bikhaji Cama Place.
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