A massive fire broke out in a five-storey Delhi Development Authority (DDA) complex in Jhandewalan on Tuesday afternoon, which was doused after a few hours. While no one was injured in the blaze, it damaged at least two dozen vehicles, officers in the fire department and police said.
Officers said that the fire was suspected to have started from the outer unit of an air conditioner on the fourth floor. However, the exact cause of the blaze is yet to be ascertained.
Delhi Fire Services director Atul Garg said that the call regarding the blaze was received at 1.47pm after which 25 fire tenders were pressed into service. “When fire department reached the spot, it was found that the fire broke out in a building which comprised of a ground floor and four other floors. The fire had spread across all floors and it was doused by 4:30pm but the cooling off operation continued till much later,” he said.
Deputy commissioner of police (central) Harsha Vardhan said that “some vehicles had caught fire”. When HT visited the spot, police officers present there said that eight cars, including an SUV and 16 two-wheelers were gutted in the blaze. All the vehicles were parked outside the building.
Occupants of the building said that the ground floor was occupied by a food outlet and a private bank. On the first floor was running an educational centre and another office of the private bank. The second floor was occupied by a few other offices. The fourth floor was solely occupied by one company whose nature of work was not known.
Jay Tomar,24, who works on the fourth floor, said that an outdoor unit of an air conditioner on the roof caught fire first. “We went up and saw that the unit and some wires had caught fire and were exploding and we immediately informed everyone in the building. Within seconds, everyone escaped and minutes later, the fire engulfed the entire building,” he said, adding the building had more than 50 people in it at the time, and there were around 20 people on the fourth floor.
Harshit Kumar, a 35-year-old employee of the private bank, said that the fire started from the fourth floor. Showing a video of the same, he said, “We were sitting in office when the fire started on the fourth floor. Some people from the upper floors rushed out. We also did. Eventually, the fire spread to the display board of the bank on the first-floor. By this time, everyone in the building had come out. Because of the impact of the heat, the glass windows broke and the fire spread to all the floors,” he said.
Another bank employee did not wish to be identified said that their ATM, which had a few lacks of rupees, also got burnt in the fire. However, police did not confirm the claim.
DDA REACTION
