CUTTACK: A major fire broke out in a shopping mall at Badambadi in Cuttack destroying garments and properties worth lakhs of rupees on Sunday. No casualties were reported in the incident.
The staff and customers present at the garment showroom had a narrow escape even as the smoke enveloped the three-storey building.
As many as five fire tenders were pressed into service to control the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby shops.
“The fire broke out at City Style showroom and the blaze later spread to the adjoining shops. On receiving information, we rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control,” fire department official Sukant Sethy said.
The fire services personnel equipped with oxygen masks went inside the showroom to ascertain if anyone was trapped, but they found out that the staff and other customers had escaped unhurt.
Several fire-fighting vehicles and over 60 fire services personnel have been deployed to completely douse the blaze as a huge plume of smoke were still coming out from the godown of the showroom.
Even as the fire services personnel suspected that the fire broke out at around 11:30 am possibly due to an electric short circuit, they are yet to ascertain the exact reason behind the accident.
The spot, which is close to Badambadi police station, was surrounded by the onlookers and the fire department’s personnel were having a harrowing time to douse the blaze amid the unwarranted crowd.
There was a beeline of vehicles on the busy Badambadi - Link Road stretch after the fire accident occurred. However, the buses continued to ply from Badambadi bus stand after a disruption of nearly half-an-hour.
Meanwhile, DG (Fire Services) Bijay Kumar Sharma has ordered a probe into the incident. He said the hospitals, malls and hotels in the city were asked to comply with the fire safety norms. "The officials have been directed to investigate under which circumstances the fire broke out in the showroom," he added.
Odisha Fire Services department personnel had conducted surprise inspection at several shopping malls and hotels in Cuttack a few days back and had found serious discrepancies. During the raid, they had found none of them have fire safety licences neither have they applied for it.
“Most of the buildings had deviated from their approved plans. The fire safety measures undertaken by these establishments are substandard. Some of the buildings have fire extinguishers, but those are outdated and staff does not know how to use them,” Sharma had said after the raids.