A fire broke out at a building in Park Street in the heart of the city here on Sunday – the second major incident to have occurred in the area, which is the hub of New Year festivities in the city, over the past 24 hours. The fire, which raged for about 45 minutes, was brought under control.
One fireman was injured in the course of the operations to douse the flames. The fire broke out in the server room of the Kotak Mahindra Bank on the seventh floor of the Apeejay House, just after noon.
There were no employees or customers inside the bank as it was a Sunday.
Ten fire tenders including two skylifts were rushed to the site to bring the flames under control. The fire raged on for 45 minutes before it could be brought under control. Dense smoke had spread to the upper floors of the nine-storey structure and the firemen had to break down the glass panels within the office premises to be able to locate the site where the fire had broken out and douse the flames there.
When the firemen reached the spot there were claims being made by some that the fire protection system of the building was not in order, but they did not find any evidence that the fire alarms had not gone off.
Mangled wires hanging from the scorched ceilings is all that remains of the server room of the bank, now inundated in knee-deep water from the hoses of the firemen. Shards of glass that had been broken down to enable better access to them lie scattered around the floor.
No reason to panic: Mamata
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the fire was under control and there was no reason to panic.
“My report is that the fire is under control and no lives were lost. Thank God”, she said asking people to go back to their festivities. “Take your mind off the fire, be careful, but relax and enjoy the New Year” was the message that Ms. Banerjee tried to convey to the people of the State through a regional television channel.
Efforts are now on to detect the source of the fire at the multi-storied office building which is owned by a major city based corporate group and is located at the same premises of a five starred hotel run by the same group.
Ms. Banerjee advised the owners of such buildings to plan for multiple exit routes and to take other measures like setting up close circuit television and having in place emergency fire-fighting measures. “Do not try to suppress such incidents, take the help of locals, use your own system and inform the authorities,”, she said.
The fire-scarred residents of the city jumped in panic on New Year's Eve when the fire extinguisher at a restaurant exploded, injuring four of them seriously.
Posts
