Palm Olympia society residents approach police after diesel generator catches fire

Noida: A fire broke out in a diesel generator set at Palm Olympia Housing Society on Thursday morning around 7.45am, triggering panic among residents who later approached

Noida: A fire broke out in a diesel generator set at Palm Olympia Housing Society on Thursday morning around 7.45am, triggering panic among residents who later approached police and the fire department to take action against the builder.

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Around 20 days ago, the fire department of Greater Noida had served a notice to the society for not having appropriate fire safety arrangements.

The residents approached the Bisrakh police station to lodge an FIR against the builder for not having the mandated fire safety arrangements. Residents also went to meet the fire officials to conduct a fire audit of the society to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.

According to the fire officials, they had served the builder with a notice recently and an audit cannot take place frequently. “The fire broke out in the generator placed outside the building. It was minor fire and was doused before we reached the spot. Residents want us to do an audit of the building again but we have already served a notice to the builder 20 days ago,” Arun Kumar, chief fire officer, said.

“We will again conduct an audit but our department has been proactive about this and there is no negligence on our part,” Kumar clarified.

Residents said the society didn’t have enough arrangements to douse the fire following which they had approached the officials seeking action against the builder. “We went to the police station but no FIR was registered. We were told that it is a civil matter. We want the builder and the fire department to ensure that no such incident takes place. We also want to know why no-objection certificates are given to buildings by the fire department when there are no proper fire safety arrangements in these buildings,” Jai Prakash, a resident, said.

The builder Sachin Garg said they have followed all suggestions made by the fire department.

“We were served with a notice in which they (fire department) had given us suggestions to ensure fire safety arrangement are in place. We have called officials to do an audit on Friday so that they can assure themselves that all measures have been taken. We had around 10 fire modules which weren’t functioning but they have been restored. We were also asked to have a person, with the expertise to deal with fire incidents in the society, and that has also been done,” Garg said.