Pune: Five cars gutted in fire at automobile service centre

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Fire officer Gajanan Patrudkar said, “The service centre was closed when the fire started and because it was an enclosed space with almost no ventilation, very intense heat caused more damage in addition to that caused by the fire. Five cars, a car paint booth and some automobile service machinery were gutted. What further worsened the situation was a large storage of cartons in a separate enclosure that intensified the fire. Extreme heat caused heavy damage to the tin sheet structure… it took four hours for us to control the fire followed by an hour-long cooling operation. There were hardly any fire safety norms followed in the said establishment.”

The cooling operation — which involves spraying water across the premises to prevent secondary fires — was undertaken later and went on for at least an hour.

Patrudkar added, “With the onset of high temperature, the risk of poorly-maintained electrical systems having short circuits, and damage due to overheating increases. Fires cause by these reasons are more damaging because of drier seasons and high temperatures.”