Major blaze at Sector 9 building

Speaking to Newsline,Mangal Chand,Sub Fire Officer,Sector 17 fire station,said,“It took us about 40 minutes to bring the fire under control and by 7.45 am the fire was completely doused. The floor housed 6 offices and was divided by plywood cabins. We managed to save one cabin but the rest were completely burnt. The fire grew because of the paperwork that was stored in the offices.”

The fire men had to break locks in order to enter the building. Even dousing the fire proved a challenging task as the paperwork caught fire immediately. The window glasses were broken due to the heat which further fueled the blaze. The fire completely burnt down computers and air-conditioners along with all records of the the offices.

“We are down to zero as the fire has completely destroyed everything. I was running a small immigration firm in the building but from the start I was a bit apprehensive about the security of the building as loose and open wires hung from everywhere. I had even communicated this to the building owner. Everything I had,including records of students and accounts,were completely burnt in the fire. Passports and certificates of some students whose files were being prepared by my firm too were burnt,” said Munish Sharda,owner of an immigration company operating from the building.

Sharda added that despite the loss,he was thankful to God that the fire did not take place during the day time as hundreds of people work there. Meanwhile,a fire official pointed out there was no fire fighting equipment in the building. They also recovered an LPG cylinder from the site.