The incident took place around 11:45 am after sparking in the wires of the electrical shaft of the building.
Following the fire incident reported from Saya Zenith, a similar one took place in Shipra Sun City's Regalia Heights on Friday.
“The incident took place around 11:45 am after sparking in the wires of the electrical shaft of the building,” fire officer SN Singh said.
The blaze started above the false ceiling raised by shopkeepers in the basement and went up to the 1st floor of the building.
GM Nigam, ex-president of the apartment owners' association (AOA) saw black fume emanating from the electrical shaft of the building. He was at the reception area of the tower when this incident occurred.
"When I peeked down in the shaft to see what is happening there, I saw that fire is simmering there, which soon, turned into flames," he said.
Without any delay, Nigam raised an alarm, cautioning the maintenance staff and the residents of the tower. The residents and maintenance staff quickly gathered and doused the fire with the help of fire extinguishers.
“It took us little time but we finally contained the fire, said Naveen Bhartiya,” president of the AOA of the tower.
Fortunately, nobody got injured in the incident. Residents complained the fire tender came 35 minutes after informing them about the incident. “Information about the incident was given at 11:45 to the fire department, but the department sent its vehicle at 12:20 pm. Also, by the time fire tender reached, the fire was already doused by the residents itself,” Bhartiya claimed.
"Thirty-five minutes is a lot of time in a case of fire. We have various shops from garments to AC repairing, running in the basement. What if the fire had spread out to the shops? It could have led the whole tower and thousands of lives into a great risk," questioned Kaushik Ghosh, a resident of the tower.
Reacting on this, Singh said the delay occurs due to distance and traffic fire brigade face on its way to the spot.
"We left for the spot within a minute after receiving the information. However, distance, traffic en-route, and lack.of civic sense in the people that they don't generally make way for the fire tender cause the delay," he added.
It is important to note the distance between fire station, situated in Vaishali to Indirapuram, is approximately 6 km.
Meanwhile, the number of fire tenders in the station is not satisfactory either.
Singh told City Spidey that there are only two fire tenders equipped to control fire incidents in high rises are available in the station.
"Also, these vehicles are not accessible 24×7. At times, these vehicles are also demanded by Kotwali fire station," Singh added.
While reporting this incident, Singh informed that both the vehicles had gone to the Kotwali station.
