70 rescued from 3 PG facilities after building catches fire in Noida

Over 70 people, including women, were safely rescued after fire broke out at a four-storeyed building where three paying guest (PG) facilities were being run in Noida’s Sector 62 locality on Monday morning, said fire and rescue officers.

As the building was located along a narrow street, firefighters had to use hose pipes to extinguish the fire.

“On Monday around 7.50am, the fire control room was alerted by a resident that a massive fire had broken out at a four-storey building in the Rasoolpur Nawada area of Sector 62. There are more than seven to eight PGs, running from the four to five storeyed building,” said Pradeep Chaubey, chief fire officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.

“On getting information, five fire tenders from surrounding stations were rushed to the spot within a few minutes. As the street was narrow, the fire engines were not able to reach the building and we used hose pipes to douse the flames,” he said.

Chaubey said the fire controlled within the hour. “As the fire started on the ground floor, people residing in the paying guest facilities did not have a way to escape and they quickly climbed to the terrace. We controlled the fire before it could engulf the entire building and rescued nearly 70 people and brought them down to safety using a ladder,” said Yogendra Prasad, fire officer, Phase 3.

“The ground and first floors were gutted in fire. There were three PG facilities in the building and all of them was full of thick smoke,” Prasad said.

Investigation revealed that the fire started from a short-circuit. “It came to fore that on Monday morning, a short-circuit occurred in an electrical panel on the ground floor. Following the short-circuit, the advertising board placed outside the building caught fire, and it soon engulfed two floors,” said Chaubey, adding that since the PGs were running out of a low-rise building, it was not necessary that they have a firefighting system in place, but they were still instructed to install fire extinguishers to deal with emergencies.