Fire fighters from multiple fire stations had to toil for over eight hours in harrowing conditions to douse a major fire that broke out in one of the twin IT towers being constructed on the SmartCity Kochi campus on Tuesday night. It took over 60 personnel and six fire tenders from Thrikkakara, Eloor, Gandhi Nagar and Thripunithura fire stations to put out the fire on Wednesday around 5 a.m.
Fire and Rescue Services officials suspect it to be a case of electrical short circuit caused, perhaps, by some welding equipment.
Sands Infinit, twin IT towers being promoted by Lulu International with three basements, ground-plus-29-floors and rising to a height of 152 metres, would be the tallest in South India when completed.
Thrikkakara fire station sources said that the fire erupted on the 25th floor of the tower and spread down to the 17th floor since the structure was somewhat hollow and separations between the floors were not yet completed. The Thrikkakara fire station was alerted about the fire shortly after 10 p.m. on Tuesday. “The fire fighting process was highly risky since the fire had erupted around 60 metres high beyond the reach of the conventional firefighting mechanism. We had to use a temporary lift meant for construction purposes to transport two temporary water tanks to the 17th floor. From there, our men used single ladders available on the construction site in scantly-lit conditions to fire fight their way up to the 25th floor,” said K.K. Shiju, Regional Fire Officer.
“Since it was an under-construction site, the ground was found too uneven to pitch the legs of the skylift. So, we had to use high pressure pumps after reaching the 17th floor to douse the fire,” said A.S. Joggy, District Fire Officer.
SmartCity Kochi CEO Manoj Nair said, “The co-developer, Sands Infrabuild Private Limited, along with their main contractor, Tata Projects Limited, and project management consultant CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd involved with the project, are conducting a detailed investigation to identify the root cause of the incident”.