Two massive fires in Noida; 27 tenders, 80 firemen struggle to douse the blaze

NOIDA: A massive blaze caught over two companies in Noida's Sector 64 and 88 respectively, keeping the fire department on its toes with as many as 27 fire tenders from both Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad, and 80 fireman from the two areas engaged in a day-long operation to bring them under control.
While a four-storey export company of radiant cushions in A block of Sector 64 was badly gutted after it caught fire around 1am on Monday, a sanitizer manufacturing unit in Sector 88 caught fire around 2.40am.
In the first incident, a fire broke out in the electricity room of the company on the first floor leading to the fire spreading around the entire floor which has furniture and cushion material spread across the floor along with the office.
A security guard first spotted the blaze as smoke started emerging from the first floor.
“The fire possibly started after a short circuit in the server room on the first floor around 1 am. When the smoke was first noticed, the seniors were informed and the fire brigade was called to the spot which arrived within some minutes and they tried to douse the fire which was brought under control within some hours,” he said.
However, after having brought the fire under control by 3 am, when the firemen were sitting free, they received information that a fire had broken out in a sanitizer manufacturing unit in Hosiery complex of Phase II area.
“The firemen rushed to the spot and some of the fire tenders were sent there from Sector 64 too. However, soon after it was found that the fire had reached from the first floor to the third floor via a cooling shaft leading to massive damage to the entire floor. As most of the firemen were present inside the building, guards initially didn’t notice that the fire was billowing from the right side on the third floor,” said Pramod Singh, a fireman deployed at the spot.
As the fire enraged at both the spots and around 24 fire tenders were stuck there, additional help had to be sought from the fire department, Ghaziabad from where, three more tenders and 15 personnel of the UP Fire Services were called for help.
Chief fire officer (CFO) Arun Kumar Singh told TOI that the fire reached the third floor from the duct.
At least two fire officers – Pramod Singh (49) and Imran Ansari (26) suffered minor burn injuries during the operation.
“It was extremely difficult to enter the premises as smoke was billowing from the entire unit,” said Pramod.
“Since, half of the tenders were at the Hosiery complex, firemen had to be shuttled between the two spots. It was found that the fire started from near a reverse osmosis (RO) system on the first floor and after it was doused, it reached the third floor via the cooling duct for fresh air. He entire building was totally filled with smoke and became difficult for firemen to enter,” he said, adding that it the reasons for the fire was unclear.
Vivek Sehgal, owner of the company told TOI that while not even 25 per cent of the first floor was damaged by the time the fire was first brought into control, it went to the third floor through the shaft, due to which, the entire floor and the terrace got damaged.
“The alarms got activated and our emergency department too - whose officials informed about the same. There is furniture and raw material which is fabric – was present on the first and third floor both. On the first floor, there is a showroom and the office too which got damaged. The loss we have suffered would be around Rs 25 crore,” he said. The fire could only be brought under control by late Monday evening.
The second fire broke out at a sanitizer manufacturing unit in Hosiery complex in Sector 88 of Phase II area.
According to the fire department officials, the fire broke out around 2.40am in one of the floors of the sanitizer manufacturing unit in C-88 of the Hosiery complex area, and spread in the basement, ground and the first floors.
Due to the presence of chemicals and other raw material, it was difficult to control the fire and it led to maximum damage in the entire premises.
“A dozen fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was brought under control in 11 hours,” the CFO said.