A fire broke out on the ground floor of a 65 storey building in Noida’s Sector 74 on Thursday morning, fire and rescue officers said, adding that none was injured in the blaze as only five storeys of the building have residential apartments and the remaining are under construction. About 20 residents on those five floors were safely evacuated, they said.
According to Pradeep Chaubey, chief fire officer, Gautam Budh Nagar, the fire was reported from the reception area of the tower called North Eye.
“Around 9.25am, the fire service unit received a call from a staff at the building alerting us about the fire. Within five minutes, five fire tenders were rushed to the spot. There was no one inside the building on the ground floor where the fire started as employees had just started arriving at the office on the ground floor,” said Chaubey.
Purported videos of the fire shared on social media by residents living in nearby residential towers showed thick fumes billowing from the building.
“It took almost half-an-hour for the firefighters to extinguish the fire. The building’s firefighting systems were working as well, and these were used by the personnel in the firefighting efforts. There was no one on the ground floor where the fire took place. In the residences located above, in the five floors, there were around 20 people, and they were evacuated as a precautionary measure to save them from the smoke from the ground floor billowing upwards,” said Chaubey.
He added that the fire is suspected to have been triggered by a short circuit, but they are probing the matter.
