More than two dozen fire tenders took around eight hours to douse the fire that had broken out in a multi-storey building in Sadar Bazar here on Wednesday. The fire fighting operation continued till 3 a.m. on Thursday, but no casualties were reported.
The fire broke out on the top floor of a five-storey hardware store around 7 p.m. on Wednesday and spread to the entire building in a matter of few minutes, said Gurugram Assistant Divisional Fire Officer I.S. Kashyap.
“It then spread to the adjoining double-storey shop housing plywood. But the fire tenders reached the spot within minutes of the call was made and did not allow it to spread further,” said Mr. Kashyap.
Traffic management
The police also had a tough time managing the traffic on the busy road and the crowd of onlookers gathering at the spot to take pictures and make videos.
Besides all 15 vehicles from the Gurugram fire department, fire tenders from Maruti Plant, DLF and Air Force station were also pressed into service. Later, three fire tenders from Faridabad also reached to help in the fire fighting operation.
Locals commended the efforts of the fire department in containing the fire to the two buildings in a congested market area despite many challenges and preventing any loss of human life.
Mr. Kashyap said a large stock of plywood was kept stored in the basement of the double-storey building, but the firemen ensured that it did not spread to it. He expressed apprehension that the fire could have gone out of control had it spread to the basement of the building.
The smoke billowing out of the two buildings could be spotted for several kilometres in the city causing panic among the residents.
