Narrow escape for 150 after fire in GMC office basement
Over 150 employees — including women — were evacuated through the back door after the fire broke out at 5pm.
Municipal commissioner Vikramaditya Singh Malik and mayor Sunita Dayal left the office when the fire started. Chief fire officer Rahul Pal said, "At 5.20pm, we received the information following which three fire tankers, along with the FSO, immediately departed from Kotwali fire station." The fire tenders brought the blaze under control after about 45 minutes.
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Pal said, "The fire started in the control unit/electric panel located in the basement meeting hall of the civic body office and reached the first floor via the electric duct. Fire service personnel extinguished the fire completely by pumping water from a motor fire engine. The fire incident resulted in damage to 10 to 12 chairs, an air conditioner and the false ceiling in the basement meeting hall."
Mohan Sharma, a GMC employee, said, "We were in the office when we noticed smoke in our cabins.
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We rushed out only to see plumes of smoke billowing from the basement. An alert was sounded and employees were evacuated."
"Since it was not advisable to use the lift and the stairs leading to GMC's four-storey building pass through the basement, employees were asked to use stairs on the opposite side," Sharma added.
Vibha, a female employee, said, "We panicked when we heard that the basement was on fire and even though we managed to escape using the stairs, we had to cover our faces as the smoke had spread all around."
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