Lucknow: A massive fire broke out in a building in Shaktinagar on Friday evening, destroying goods worth Rs 1 crore of three warehouses dealing with sofas, mattresses, and furniture.
As many as 20 workers who got trapped inside were rescued by breaking open windows by locals.
The houses in the vicinity were evacuated as a safety measure.
Twelve fire tenders managed to bring the fire under control in about two hours. However, the goods continued to smoulder late into the night. Authorities said that the building lacked fire safety equipment.
The three-storey building, located at Shaktinagar Dhal, belongs to Pradyumn Rastogi of Raja Bazar and includes a basement.
It houses factories belonging to Ashraf (mattresses), Rafi Ulla (sofas), and Rashid (furniture). Three workers and their families reside in the building.
Around 6.30 pm on Friday, the fire started in the sofa warehouse. Due to the large quantity of furniture, foam, and wood stored in the factory, the fire quickly spread throughout the building. People alerted the fire department, and firefighters arrived within minutes, said CFO Mangesh Kumar who led the operation.
Local resident Rahul Singh stated that the factories were operating illegally in the building and that there were previous instances of small fires.
Complaints were made multiple times to the building owner, the LDA, the municipal corporation, and the police, but no action was taken. Singh believes that if the issue was addressed earlier, such a large fire could have been avoided. The building usually houses 30 to 35 people, and at the time of the fire, 20 people were inside. All of them managed to escape with the help of locals.
The fire spread to cylinders stored inside the building, causing them to explode. Three cylinders exploded one after the other. The blasts shook the entire area, and nearby residents rushed out of their homes in fear.