Blaze at SEZ guts QuarkCity

Comprising industrial,commercial and residential components,QuarkCity is coming up with a 14-storied building,60 per cent of which was complete and the rest was supposed to be ready within this year.

Timely action of the local fire brigade averted a major disaster by keeping the inferno from reaching a diesel dump,where thousands of litres of fuel were stored. “The dump was merely 50 yards away from the fire when we reached the spot,” Additional District Fire Officer (ADFO) Sham Lal told Newsline. Also,an LPG godown in the vicinity was saved from the blaze.

Although QuarkCity HR Administration Head Ajesh Gupta confirmed that short circuit led to the fire, fire officials have not yet confirmed it. Around 10.30 pm on Monday,fire broke out in the server room and soon spread to the entire office site,which was built under iron sheets with false ceiling atop. “Since combustible material like thermocol,plaster of paris and plywood were in abundance,the fire spread and became fierce within no time,” said the ADFO,while claiming that the fire had been brought under control within an hour,but it took over five hours to extinguish the fire completely.

At 10.40 pm on Monday,the fire brigade was alerted on the phone by Mohinder Singh,a company employee. Immediately five fire engines were despatched,which then called in two more and sought help from Chandigarh and Dera Bassi. “Since it was an industrial area,further spread of fire could have resulted in a major loss,” said theADFO,while informing that the fire tenders returned at 4 am.

Gupta said all official records,computers,air-conditioners,furniture,data cables,spare parts,accessories and other infrastructure were lost in the inferno. “Our finance department is still on the job to make the assessment of actual losses,” he added.