KOCHI: Panic gripped the residents of Kakkanad for hours after a major fire broke out at the top of a 30-story under-construction building at Edachira near Infopark in Kochi.
The blaze, which engulfed the top of the high rise, was completely doused by around 8 am on Wednesday after nearly 10 hours long fire-fighting efforts by hundreds of the Fire and Rescue Service officials.
According to the Fire and Rescue Service officers, the fire broke out on the 22nd floor of the building - Cyber Tower - owned by Lulu Group at 10.30 pm on Tuesday. "As per the statements of the owners of the building, the plywood materials stored in the building for construction purposes caught fire. The preliminary inquiry suggested that a short circuit might have led to the blaze," said a Fire and Rescue Service personnel.
"We received an alert by 10.45 pm and seven units from four fire stations Thrikkakakara, Thripunithura, Floor and Gandhinagar pressed into service. The building has a NOC for the construction of the 30-storey building and the construction of 17 storeys has been completed while the construction above 17 floors is underway. We assumed that welding works were underway at the site and a short circuit might have triggered the fire. However, a detailed examination is underway," said K K Shyju, Divisional Fire Officer, Ernakulam. The loss caused by the fire is yet to be estimated.
It was a tough task to the firemen to contain the blaze erupted on the top of the building and it might be first experience of such hour-long fire fighting exercise for them in recent times. "We struggled in the initial hours as we could not reach the spot. The construction above the 17th floor are mere structures with no proper walls. The burning materials were kept on the floors, making it impossible to reach the spot through the building.
"We used the lift of the building to reach the 10th floor. Then using our ladder the fire-fighters landed on the 17th floor. Then a water tank was set up using a crane there and pumped water using high-pressure pumping equipment to the top floors as water could be pumped only at a height of 15 floors from our fire tenders," said Divisional Fire Officer.
"For concreting, purpose plywood sheets were laid on the floors and the sheets on 22nd floor caught fire," said Ranjith Kumar V S, Thrikkakara Fire Station Officer. According to him, it was for the first time recently fire force personnel stored water during fire fighting and doused fire using it.
It was a scary sight at night to see the blaze on the top of such a tall building, according to the local residents. "The fire was engulfing to the top floors and that triggered panic among the people. However, the fire officials managed the situation well, said Anish Panthalani, a nearby resident and an employee of Infopark.