Building collapses after blaze; 3 firemen trapped

Three firemen were trapped under the debris after a four-storey building collapsed tonight after a major fire broke out in it in the Sector 17 area of the city.
"Even as the firemen were engaged in dousing the flames, the building collapsed, trapping three fire personnel," said Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh.
He said that it would take hours to pull out those trapped under the debris of the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) building.
There is a possibility that key data of Punjab government as well as Chandigarh Administration and Municipal Corporation may have been destroyed in the fire which started at around 4.50 PM, an official spokesman said.

"The fire spread very fast and several fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames. However, the building collapsed at around 9.16 PM," he said.
As many as 14 fire tenders from Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula were rushed to the spot.