Fire breaks out at Electronics Laboratory in Sector V

A fire broke out in the Electronics Regional Test Laboratory (East) situated on the top floor of a multi-storeyed office complex at DN Block in Salt Lake Sector V on Wednesday. 

Sixteen fire tenders were pressed in to service and fire fighters took around three hours to extinguish the fire. 

A senior officer of the state fire and emergency services department said it is a centrally air-conditioned (AC) five storeyed building and the fire broke out in the top floor following a snag in the AC machine. 

The panic broke out as the smoke spread to the entire building through the duct of the AC machine. People were found running out of the building. 

Pandemonium broke out when the officials found smoke spreading inside the building. The officials spotted the flames in the laboratory at around 11.45 am. The fire spread fast as the laboratory was packed with chemicals. 

No one got trapped in the building. Many managed to run out soon after the fire broke out in the building. Some were rescued by the fire fighters. 

The officer of the fire department said that a major part of the building is covered with glass panels, as a result of which the interior got filled with smoke. “We learnt from the incident of fire at AMRI Hospitals in Dhakuria, where most had died after inhaling poisonous gas that didn’t billow out as the centrally AC building was covered with glass panels. Thus, in this case the first task that we did is to evacuate the building,” the officer said. 

The fire fighters had also faced trouble in entering the building as it was filled with smoke. 

Later, they used oxygen mask and went inside to douse off the flames. Not much harm was done to the building as the laboratory was situated on the top floor.

It may be recalled that three persons including a woman fell ill when a fire broke out in an office of a mobile network service provider, housed in Webel SPT-II building at Salt Lake Sector V on March 29 morning. 

Five fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames.  

The repeated incidents of fire in Salt Lake in the recent time are matter of concern, said a fire department official adding that steps must be taken to assure availability of necessary fire fighting arrangements in all the highrises at Sector V.