BLAZE-BUSTERS: A resident of Nilkamal apartments, on Elgin Road, helps firemen fight the blaze that broke out in the compressor of an air-conditioner on Sunday evening. There were no casualties. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

A fire broke out in an apartment of a 10-storeyed building on Elgin Road after the compressor of an air-conditioning machine exploded on Sunday evening. Three fire tenders took an hour to douse the blaze.

Police said the residents of the highrise, Nilkamal, heard a loud bang around 8pm and spotted flames leaping out of an air-conditioner in a first-floor apartment, owned by A.V. Rajgarhia.

The flat was under lock and key but the air-conditioner was running. The residents of the other flats — there are 68 in the building — informed Tollygunge fire brigade, from where a team arrived around 8.15pm.

“We had to spray water through one of the windows of the apartment. The damage inside is yet to be ascertained,” said a fire brigade officer.

The flame was brought under control around 9.15pm, but the residents were still panicky. Some of them had run to the roof, while others had rushed out of the building, leaving their apartments open.

“We were in such a hurry we did not even bother to lock our flats,” said Nayan Shah, a resident of a fourth-floor apartment.

“My parents had gone to visit our relatives, who live on the fourth floor. They called me after the fire broke out and said they were feeling suffocated,” said Ragini Sharma.

“Thank God no one was injured,” said another resident of the building.