20151209 India Fire breaks out at Sec V office
India Dec 08 2015 “Building”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire breaks out at Sec V office
Updated: 2015-12-10-06:29
A fire broke out on the sixth floor of a Sector-V highrise on Wednesday morning, ravaging the computers and furniture of the office. No one was injured but close to 50 people were stuck on the eighteenth floor of the building, Infinity Benchmark, and were later rescued.
In fact, such heavy smoke billowed out that firemen co uld not access the office from inside the building; they were forced to wear breathing apparatus and access the office from outside, reaching the sixth floor with the help of a 42m-high skylift.
At 7.10am a security guard on the ground floor of Infinity Benchmark–it houses several IT and ITes companies –spotted flames at a window on the sixth floor even as thick smoke obscured his view of the upper floors. He immediately alerted the offices upstairs and people were evacuated.
Six fire engines reached the spot and firemen took a little over four hours to douse the flames. On accessing the sixth floor with the help of the skylift, the firemen broke open the window panes and entered the office wearing breathing apparatus. “The fire originated in a server room, housing computer units. As the entire floor was smoke-locked, we intervened from outside. We broke the window panes and approached the seed of the fire,” said Shankar Sarkar, divisional officer who led the operation.
Fire brigade officials suspect the fire started from an AC machine, but a forensic test will reveal the exact cause. “AC vents, furniture and computers were gutted,” said Sarkar.The fire department has not lodged any complaint yet.
“Our firefighters conducted floor-by-floor search to ensure that nobody was stuck.Some people were told to wait upstairs as there was thick smoke on the lower floors. Once the smoke was cleared, the staff were escorted out,” said a fire officer. A member of a security team there said 500 employees of several call centres were present in the building.
Web Source: TIMES OF INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Fire-breaks-out-at-Sec-V-office/articleshow/50115851.cms