20160512 India TOI office evacuated after fire, but there’s no stopping the paper
India May 11 2016 “Building”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
TOI office evacuated after fire, but there’s no stopping the paper
Updated: 2016-05-12-08:17
A fire broke out at Times House at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg on Wednesday, necessitating a complete evacuation of the building. As the fire raged and smoke billowed out of the building, it looked to the outside world that The Times of India would be forced to drop at least its Thursday edition.
But TOI journalists and their colleagues in other departments weren’t about to throw in the towel so easily. In a heart-warming display of grit and teamwork, the entire organisation came together to ensure that TOI kept its morning date with you, dear reader.
The fire began at around 2.20pm on the fourth floor of the building, apparently due to a short circuit in a conference room. While the blaze was largely confined to one floor, smoke spread rapidly through the building. As fire alarms rang through the offices, security officials escorted employees out from all the floors.
The fire department was informed and 25 fire tenders rushed to the scene. Firemen managed to climb through the windows and doused the flames within an hour. A crane lift was also pressed into service to contain the blaze and some of the windows on the fourth floor were broken to allow the smoke to escape.
Even as the firemen were conducting their operation, senior members of the editorial team and management went into a huddle in nearby TOI office, which houses some of its other departments. It was quickly decided that the edition would be brought out from this office.
Specialised page-making machines were quickly transferred and set up. The IT and administration teams worked rapidly to ensure that all systems would be up and running as soon as possible. Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon usually have different advertisements but the ad scheduling team performed the difficult task of keeping pages as similar as possible, ensuring minimum disruption.
Editorial colleagues in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore very willingly pitched in, making some of the pages to ease the load on the Delhi team. At 8.30pm, the first argument over a headline took place in the modified `newsroom’. Life was back to normal.
Web Source: THE TIMES OF INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/TOI-office-evacuated-after-fire-but-theres-no-stopping-the-paper/articleshow/52231699.cms