Nagpur: Fire broke out in the Eternity Mall in busy and congested Sitabuldi area in the early hours of Tuesday. However, a major tragedy was averted due to timely action by Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) fire and emergency services department.
As per sources, fire broke out in one of the garment shops — Fashion at Big Bazaar (fbb) — situated on the first floor at around 5.40am. Security guards alerted the fire department immediately. Seven fire tenders were pressed into action and the fire was brought under control within one-and-a-half-hours.
In charge of Civil Lines fire station RR Dubey told TOI that short circuit was the reason behind fire. “Fire started from an electric switch board and soon it engulfed the wirings and the false ceiling of the shop. Fortunately, the fire was detected early and doused before it reached the huge stock of ready-made garments kept in the shop,” he said.
Dubey also said the firm incurred a loss of around Rs7 lakh and the firemen managed to save goods worth over Rs20 lakh.
According to eyewitnesses, black smoke was emanating from the mall for quite sometime. The quantum of smoke increased when the fire tenders started its operation.
Though the incident occurred early in the morning, it soon became talk of the town as a large number of citizens visit the mall either for shopping or for watching movies.
Dubey said notice was issued to the owner of fbb for inspection. “We will inspect the shop and issue notice if found any lacunas in the fire systems,” he said.
Simultaneously, the fire department started checking fire NOC and compliance of all other shops in the mall. Notices are likely to be issued to all shops in the mall for inspection in coming days.
Probably, this was the first fire incident in 11 years in the G+3 floor Eternity Mall that also comprises two-level basement parking.
A few days ago, a fire incident was reported in one of the shops at Empress Mall where too major destruction was averted.