Fire breaks out in South City-2 apartment, no injuries

Residents of a third-floor apartment in Q Block of South City-2 had a narrow escape from a high-intensity fire that broke out on their housing premises on Saturday afternoon. No injuries were reported in the incident and the flames were doused in an hour

Residents of a third-floor apartment in Q Block of South City-2 had a narrow escape from a high-intensity fire that broke out on their housing premises on Saturday afternoon. No injuries were reported in the incident and the flames were doused in an hour.

The fire broke out in the third-floor apartment located in South City-2 in Sector 49, behind Park Hospital and had three occupants. (HT Photo)

According to the fire department, the occupants had just left the premises, located on the top floor, around 1.30pm when the incident took place. Such was the intensity of the blaze that a team of officials from the Sector 50 police station and the fire department evacuated all occupants of the building.

Rajesh Kumar, assistant fire safety officer (AFSO), Haryana Fire Services, said, “One of the neighbours had alerted us about the fire. The house was locked from outside as its occupants had left home just a few minutes earlier. A fire tender from the Sector 29 fire brigade was immediately dispatched. It took fire department officials around 15 minutes to reach the spot.”

The apartment is located in Sector 49, behind Park Hospital and had three occupants. The lanes leading up to the site of the fire were extremely narrow due to the high density of residential buildings.

Kumar said that the firemen, upon seeing the high intensity of the blaze, called for a water bowser truck from the Sector 29 fire brigade. A water bowser truck is similar to a water tanker and transports water to a fire site for dousing operations in instances when a hydrant is not located nearby.

“It took us over an hour to douse the fire. Most items in the apartment were gutted. The fire could have spread to the three floors located below and as a precautionary measure, all its occupants were evacuated from the building jointly by Gurugram police and fire department officials,” Kumar said.

Kumar said that dousing operations were conducted in such a fashion to ensure that the blaze did not spread to the kitchen, where an LPG cylinder was stored, failing which the blaze could have amplified.

Fire department officials said that the electricity voltage load in the building was extremely high and they suspect that a short circuit caused the fire.

“It was only when the occupants returned from the market did they find out that their house had caught fire. Their versions have been taken by firemen and investigations are ongoing to ascertain the cause,” Kumar said.