A major fire broke out at the corporate office of the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) located in the Ganga shopping complex in Sector 29 here on Friday afternoon, prompting evacuation of scores of people from the building, officials said. Nobody was hurt in the blaze that was reported from the NMRC office located on the third floor of the complex around 1.30 pm, Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said.
NMRC Managing Director Ritu Maheshwari said the fire was triggered at 1.15 pm due to an electrical short circuit. No documents were damaged in the incident and a departmental investigation was launched, she added. “Thirteen fire tenders in total were rushed to the spot where local police were also deployed and the blaze brought under control within three hours,” CFO Singh told reporters, adding that he personally oversaw the relief and rescue operation.
The fire caused damage to the office of the managing director and a large conference room within the NMRC premises, the senior fire-fighter said, adding that the blaze spread quickly due to the presence of a false ceiling. “With false ceiling, it became difficult to ascertain the extent of the area the fire had spread into. The fire has been controlled except for some small patches on the false ceiling, which are being doused,” Singh said at 4 pm.
He said around 60 to 70 people were working inside the office when the fire broke out and all of them were evacuated to safety immediately and added that no one was injured. He said the fire-fighters had to break open some glass windows in the NMRC to make way for the smoke out of the premises in order to douse the fire.
Asked if safety measures installed in the building functioned properly, the CFO said, “In events of a major fire, power supply in the buildings are discontinued. Here also the power supply was discontinued and we relied on our fire tenders for the operation. The Ganga Shopping Complex in the posh Sector 29 of Noida houses several daily utility shops, commercial officers, restaurants and fast-food outlets besides the Noida Media Club.
In a statement, the NMRC said the fire was triggered due to an electrical short circuit. “Immediately the area got evacuated and necessary preventive actions by staff have been taken. Police and fire department were informed, NMRC’s Maheshwari said.
“There is no loss of life or injury reported and none of the documents got damaged due to this incident. ED (Executive Director) of the NMRC has been instructed to carry out a detailed investigation to assess loss and reasons for incident through technical team,” the IAS officer added. Several purported videos of the major blaze also surfaced on social media.
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