20140531 India Fire at railway guesthouse in Connaught Place
India May 31 2014 “Automobile & Railway”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : --- Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire at railway guesthouse in Connaught Place
Updated: 2014-06-01-12:58
NEW DELHI: A fire broke out at the railway guesthouse in Connaught Place in central Delhi on Saturday evening. No casualty was reported in the blaze. The fire was on the second floor of the railway guesthouse close to Shankar Market.
Fire officials received a call reporting the fire around 6.50pm and rushed 12 fire tenders to the spot. There were some people on the ground floor of the building who rushed out after a person raised the alarm.
Police and fire department officials said that they suspected a short circuit in the wiring of a temporary structure to be the cause of the fire but that a probe is being conducted to ascertain its exact cause.
Following the news of the blaze, panic spread among shop owners in Shankar Market as the spot is no more than 50 metres away. Some of them shut their shops after they got to know about the fire.
“The was a huge uproar and I rushed out with some shopkeepers to find out the cause. To my horror, I saw flames coming out of the windows of a nearby building. Soon, however, fire tenders arrived and controlled the blaze,” said Ankush Sharma, a shop owner.
Police had already barricaded the road to Shankar Market to avoid crowding and traffic jams. Thanks to the swift response of the fire department, activities in the rest of Connaught Place were unaffected. Most shoppers and locals came to know about the fire only through news channels or phone calls from friends and family.
Though no one was injured in the incident, most of the goods in the building were destroyed in the fire. There were some computers, furniture, coolers, air-conditioners, bedding, pillows, bed sheets and documents of the guesthouse that were gutted, said a railway official.
Fire officials said teams had carried out search operations to check if anyone had been trapped in the blaze. The fire was brought under control by 8pm after which cooling operations were initiated.
Websource:The times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Fire-at-railway-guesthouse-in-Connaught-Place/articleshow/35859894.cms