BHUBANESWAR: A fire broke out at a garments shop in Unit-1 underground market on Thursday night.
On noticing a plume of smoke emanating from the shop, locals alerted the Odisha Fire and Emergency Service personnel. As Diwali celebrations were underway, a fire fighting vehicle was patrolling in the city to attend to any untoward incident. On receiving information, the fire vehicle rushed to the spot. The fire personnel identified the shop where the blaze had erupted and doused it.
However, they faced a major challenge as the market consisting of several shops was engulfed in smoke. The fire personnel used breathing apparatus sets and a tower light to disperse the smoke from the area. They had to even break the ventilation duct located above the ground.
“We were able to douse the blaze within two hours. However, it took over four hours to diffuse the smoke from the entire underground market,” said a fire service officer. Initial investigation suggests one of the shops caught fire possibly due to a short circuit. Though no one was injured in the incident, goods worth lakhs were gutted in the affected shop, he said.
At least five fire fighting vehicles and more than 30 personnel were engaged to douse the blaze and disperse the smoke triggered by the accident.
In another incident, a bicycle shop in Bapuji Nagar area caught fire on Thursday evening. One fire fighting vehicle rushed to the spot and doused the blaze. Fire personnel said no one was injured in the incident which reportedly occurred due to a short circuit in the shop.