Massive Fire Near Delhi's Select Citywalk Mall Rages for Hours

New Delhi: Thick plumes of smoke were seen from most parts of South Delhi as a truck caught fire in Malviya Nagar and spread to a nearby rubber godown and continued to rage for several hours in the evening.

The fire was reported from near the Select Citywalk mall in Malviya Nagar, which is one of the most popular malls in Delhi and is visited by lakhs every day.

A call reporting the fire was received around 6 pm and 35 fire tenders were rushed to the factory to bring the blaze under control, said a Delhi Fire Services officer.

No casualties were reported in the blaze that started around 5 pm. Residents spotted smoke billowing out of a building even from a distance of about 5 kilometres.

The godown that is still burning is very close to the Sant Nirankari School, which was empty at the time of the incident.

Firefighters have been struggling for the past several hours to bring the fire under control while it continues to spread to the nearby buildings. According to reports, police are evacuating some of the nearby residential buildings.

The truck that was carrying rubber sheets from the godown suddenly caught fire and spread to the godown in no time. The godown, filled with rubber sheets was quickly engulfed in flames and is yet to be doused down even after several hours.

Local AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that there were many such illegal godowns and illegal factories were many disasters are waiting to happen.

He also said that the local AAP councillor had complained to SDMC officials, but no action was taken.

GC Mishra, Director, Delhi Fire Service said later at night, "We deployed 40 tenders of different types. The fire has been limited to the building and will not spread but since there is rubber it will take time to douse flames completely. There are no casualties."

In another incident nearby, several vehicles were gutted in a fire that broke out at an auto pond of the police in the Saket area.

A call regarding the fire was received at Saket police station at 5.16 PM, said DCP (south) Romil Baaniya.

"On reaching the spot it was found that the fire broke out at an auto pond in Sector 5 of Pushp Vihar," the officer said.

The auto pond houses case property of the police's south district, Baaniya said.

"It was found that many vehicles have caught fire," he said.

Eight fire tenders, and personnel from Delhi Police Civil Defence and disaster management controlled the fire.