67 evacuated after fire breaks out in movie hall in W Delhi

NEW DELHI: A major tragedy was averted after a fire at a cinema hall in west Delhi was timely doused on Sunday afternoon, officials said.
As many as 67 people were watching Guardians of the Galaxy when plumes of smoke began emanating from the projector room of Fun Cinemas in the TDI mall, Moti Nagar, they said, adding three people were present in the "congested" room with multiple equipment.
Officials said the smoke slowly engulfed the hall in which the film was on, creating panic and chaos among the people. The fire department was alerted. Soon enough, the cinegoers were rescued by the firefighters with help from the theatre staff.
Delhi Fire Service (DFS) director Atul Garg said they got a call about the incident at 1.12 pm. "Seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot," he said.
Praveen Kumar, who is in charge of the Moti Nagar fire station, said the fire was on the third floor of the building. "The entire floor was engulfed with smoke and we were not able to get inside. We had to use our breathing apparatus to finally enter the cinema hall," he said.
After entering the hall, two teams were formed. One was asked to search for the people who were trapped, and other firefighters were asked to douse the fire.
According to the fire department, they found that several plastic items - lying in the projector room - acted as catalysts and stirred up the blaze. "There were fire extinguishers in the hall, but they were not used. The AC was completely gutted. We suspect that a short circuit from the AC may have started the fire. However, police will probe into the case and ascertain the cause," the officer said.
Kumar said: "We received the information on time. Otherwise, it would have been a tragedy like Uphaar Cinema. The staff of the hall immediately asked people to evacuate. It hardly took 10 to 15 minutes to douse the fire. No one was injured in the incident."
As a precautionary measure, people on other floors were also asked to leave the building.