Fire in multi-storey building, panic in commercial hub

Fire broke out in a multi-storey building of a private bank in Feroze Gandhi Market on Tuesday morning, causing panic in the area. All adjoining and nearby buildings were commercial and timely action by the firemen did not allow the fire to spread further. When the fire broke out, the entire market was close as it usually opens at 9 am.

Although no major damage was reported in the fire, yet the front portion of three to four floors of a building were damaged in the fire. One adjacent building also had minor damage.

As per information, the fire broke out around 8.30 am. After getting information, three fire tenders immediately reached the spot and started dousing the flame. The fire was completely doused by the firemen in less than an hour and only one fire tender was used.

Sub-fire officer Dinesh Kumar said that when the firemen reached the spot to douse the flames, they took almost 40 to 50 minutes to control the fire completely. Interestingly, all the floors had fire safety system installed, but the same was locked and so could not be used. Hence, the firemen had to get water from outside to control the fire.

Kumar added that some documents and furniture of a private bank housed in the building was damaged, but no major loss had been reported.

Meanwhile, the Feroze Gandhi Market Association Traders and Property Owners Association raised concern over the incident. Association president PS Gill in a statement said that despite two orders of the high court in 2010 and 2019 on the need for decongestion of five parking lots of this market, one of the measures was introducing hourly parking. The MC need to mark parking lots, fire lanes, tow-away zones and other basic steps to avoid congestion and facilitate entry of fire tenders, ambulance, etc.

Association chairman Col (retd) Harjap Singh stated that the MC had so far installed fire hydrants in each of the parking lots but done nothing to make the markings in the parking lots. He said encroachers also create traffic chaos in the market. Luckily, the fire incident happened in the early hours and not so many vehicles were parked in the parking lots, therefore the fire brigade could reach the spot in time, he added.

This association requested the MC Commissioner to call a meeting to discuss the progress made on the solutions to decongest the five parking lots of this market.