Mtnl Office Gutted In Another Delhi Fire
A wind-swept fire gutted two floors of a tall office building in the heart of New Delhi yesterday, but there were no reports of casualties.
Police said no one was believed to be trapped in the fire that started on the ninth floor before offices opened in the Chandralok Building of Connaught Place business district.
Dozens of fire fighters took more than six hours to extinguish the fire, which erupted four days after smoke from a blaze killed 57 people in a packed movie theatre.
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Offices of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which provides basic telephone services in New Delhi and Mumbai, on the ninth and 10th floors were completely gutted, an MTNL official said. The firms telephone services were unaffected.
Authorities said it was unlikely that anyone was trapped inside the 10-storey building, which caught fire at 9 am before offices opened. One person died in a fire in the same building in 1995, officials said.
The fire followed last Fridays major blaze at south Delhis Uphaar Grand cinema hall that killed 57 people. Had the fire broken out after 10 am, when offices open, it would have been a similar tragedy to the one at Uphaar movie hall fire, said B D Pahuja, assistant manager of Power and Finance Corporation Ltd.
The yellow and grey building also houses the offices of the State Bank of India, Shipping Corporation of India, the Essar Group, the tourism offices of several northern Indian states and Japan Airlines.
Essar said the fire had briefly knocked out its cellular telephone services in the capital. More than a dozen fire engines gathered outside the building, which is hedged in by other multi-storey structures, as strong winds fanned the blaze and swept it across the ninth and 10th floors.