Residential apartment catches fire in Pataudi; four rescued

A fire broke out in the basement of a two-storey residential apartment in Shakti Nagar near Pataudi Chowk on early Sunday morning

A fire broke out in the basement of a two-storey residential apartment in Shakti Nagar near Pataudi Chowk on early Sunday morning. Three women and a child were rescued by fire department officials. However, no injuries were reported from the site, said officials of the fire department.

HT Image

As per the officials, the fire broke out around 2am in the basement, where a local shopkeeper used to store bundles of incense sticks.A short circuit is suspected to be the cause of the fire.Nobody was present inside the basement when the fire broke out.

“One of the neighbours informed the fire department that he could see smoke coming out of the basement of a nearby building. Upon reaching, we found the entire basement to be engulfed in fire,” said IS Kashyap, assistant divisional fire safety officer (ADFSO).

Kashyap added that fire tenders from Sector 37 fire station, located less than three kilometres away from the site of the fire, were the first to arrive at the site. A total of eight fire tenders were used in the dousing operations which took almost two hours.

“As part of the mandatory mode of operation, we checked the two residential floors above the basement for inhabitant who might be stuck . On the top-most floor, three women and a child were found sleeping. They were completely unaware of the fire. We used the staircase of the building to escort them to a safer place as a precautionary measure,” said Kashyap.

Kashyap said that the fire department officials ensured the fire was limited to the basement of the building and did not approach upwards.Furniture and electrical equipment were gutted in the fire apart from the stocks of incense sticks.

Kashyap said that since storage of any commercial goods in a residential area is illegal, they are investigating the matter and are likely to take legal action against the shopkeeper for violation of norms.