Close on the heels of a fire incident at a restaurant in Gaur Global Village, now a shop in the commercial complex of the Paramount Spectrum of Crossings Republik caught fire owing to a short circuit.
The incident was reported at around 10.30 am today when welding work was going on inside the shop. The electricity board could not accommodate the extra load of the welding machine and began to spark. Soon, the sparking turned into a full-fledged fire.
The guards on duty rushed to the scene and controlled the fire with the help of water pipes and fire extinguishers. Notably, the fire alarms didn’t go off at the time neither did the MCB trip automatically.
The fire brigade reached the spot five hours later. “They came around 3.30 pm,” confirmed Payal Tripathi, an AOA member of Paramount Spectrum.
Eyewitness Varun Mathur, whose has a departmental store adjacent to the gutted shop, said the fire surrounded the board within minutes of the short circuit, prompting the workers to snap the power supply to the shop. “Suddenly, black smoke started to fill up the shop. Petrified workers then ran to switch down the MCB,” he said.
Varun also informed City Spidey that a fully-equipped fighting equipment is not installed in the complex, and the shops don’t have smoke detectors or water sprinklers.
Commenting on the incident, Lawyer Prashant (who didn't want his surname to be used) said, “What happened directly violates Uttar Pradesh Fire Prevention and Fire safety Act 2005 and the National Building Code Fire and Life Safety guidelines. Both mention the pre-requisites of an automatic fire detection and alarm system, and automatic sprinkler system in any commercial complex.”
Tripathi said an inspection of internal wiring has been initiated in the wake of the incident. She also highlighted the lackadaisical approach of the fire station and added, “We need a fire station immediately in this area. The incident was reported as soon as it happened, but the fire brigade reached five hours later when everything was already brought under control ”
City Spidey tried to reach the maintenance staff and builder of Paramount, but the calls went unanswered.
