Noida: Fire breaks out at Sector 10 factory after short-circuit in AC unit

As multiple cardboard boxes were stored close to the short-circuit spot, a fire erupted rapidly despite the best efforts of factory workers to contain the fire

A massive fire broke out on the ground floor of the factory following a short-circuit in the air conditioner (AC) unit in Noida’s Sector 10 on Monday morning, said fire officials, adding that no one was injured in the blaze.

This is the third fire incident in the city in the past seven days to be triggered by a short-circuit in the AC unit, the Gautam Budh Nagar fire official also issued an advisory, urging people to avoid operating the AC continuously. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

This is the third fire incident in the city in the past seven days to be triggered by a short-circuit in the AC unit. The Gautam Budh Nagar fire official also issued an advisory and urged people to avoid operating the AC continuously.

“On Monday around 10am, the fire control room was alerted by a factory worker that a fire broke out on the ground floor of the factory in Block C of Sector 10, which is involved in multiple businesses, including the trading of clothes,” said Pradeep Kumar Chaubey, chief fire officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.

He further said, “On getting information, eight fire tenders from the surrounding fire stations were rushed to the spot and they managed to extinguish the flames within half-an-hour. But when fire extinguishing work was underway, a blast took place on the third floor of the four-storey building.”

“When we inquired about the blast, we were informed by the factory owner that an LPG cylinder was kept on the third floor. Due to the extreme heat caused by the ground floor fire, the cylinder exploded,” Chaubey said.

“Our teams swiftly reached the third floor from an adjacent building and extinguished the fire before it could engulf the entire factory,” said Yogendra Prasad, fire officer, Phase 1, adding that during the investigation, it came to fore that around 9.45am, when workers reached the factory and turned on the AC switch, a spark occurred.

As multiple cardboard boxes were stored close to the short-circuit spot, a fire erupted rapidly despite the best efforts of factory workers to contain the fire.

In the last week, two cases of fire following a short-circuit in the AC were reported in the city.

On May 31, a fire broke out at an IT company following a short circuit in the air conditioner (AC) in Noida’s Sector 63 Block H.

On May 30, a fire broke out on the 10th floor of high-rise Lotus Boulevard following a short-circuit in the indoor unit of an AC in Noida’s Sector 100.