Short circuit fire chars three vehicles in Gurugram’s Sector 40

Residents alleged that they had spotted the fire at about 5am and immediately tried to alert discom officials, but none responded

A newly purchased car and two motorcycles were reduced to ashes in Sector 40 in a fire due to a short circuit on an electrical pole nearby, fire department officials said on Tuesday.

A car and two bikes were burnt after they caught fire due to a spark from an electric pole at a colony in Sector 40, in Gurugram on Tuesday. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

Residents alleged that they had spotted the fire at about 5am and immediately tried to alert officials of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), but none responded.

Fire department officials said that they received an alert at about 5.21am from Sector 40’s Block G after which a fire tender was pressed into action. The flames were doused in 30 minutes.

Fire department officials said that the fire originated from an electrical short circuit on the pole which burnt the wires. The flames later engulfed the vehicles.

(Fire department quote here)

Residents alleged that they had complained to DHBVN earlier too about the dangling electrical wires on the pole, but nobody acted.

“Had the DHBVN staff responded to our calls and turned off the power supply of the area, we could have doused the flames before they spread to the vehicles,” said a resident who did not wish to be named.

After the incident, a power outage affected the residents of the G-block for more than six hours.

A DHBVN official said that they had received the information about the fire after which the power supply in the area was cut. “After rectifying all the faults, it was restored after almost six to seven hours. The fire was due to short circuit in wires installed by the residents and not ones of the DHBVN,” he added.