Massive fire at Lok Nayak Bhawan damages Delhi income tax office
NEW DELHI: A massive fire was reported from the Income Tax settlement commission office on the fourth floor of Lok Nayak Bhawan, that also houses many other government offices including the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Monday afternoon.
At least 28 fire tenders were rushed to the spot and 100 firefighters carried out the operation to douse the fire, which lasted for three hours. No casualties were reported in the fire.
“We received a call at 4:01 pm about the fire that reportedly started due to a short circuit in the air conditioning unit on the fourth floor. We immediately rushed 28 fire tenders to the spot and a rescue operation was carried out. We managed to douse the fire by 7 pm,” a fire official said.
As the fire spread and smoke filled the entire third and fourth floor, panic spread and people started evacuating the building. “We heard the window pane break. There was so much smoke that our eyes started to burn. We felt chocked. We took the stairs and ran down,” Raman, who works in one of the offices in the building, said.
As soon as the fire started, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) control room inside the building dispatched their firefighters, who later got trapped inside as smoke filled the entire fourth floor. Along with them one person who worked in the Income Tax office too got trapped.
“The fire started during office hours so the building was packed. But the moment it started spreading, people got alert and started running down the stairs,”Deputy Chief fire officer Rajesh Pawar said.
“Though most of the people managed to escape from the building, four firefighters from NDMC, who started the operation before we reached, along with a civilian got trapped due to thick smoke,” Pawar said.
“The firefighters were dousing the fire from the adjacent side of the building, because of which smoke gathered on the third floor. We were told that a few men were trapped on the third floor so we put up extension ladders and our firefighters went in to rescue them. They were safely brought down,” Pawar said.
“Thankfully no casualties were reported,” the deputy chief fire officer said.
Though the fire department suspect that the fire started from the air-conditioning unit, it needs to be verified.
An inquiry into the matter has been initiated by the fire department.
In Delhi, there are around 3,000 buildings taller than 15 metres and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) is equipped with just five skylifts.