Bhubaneswar, Feb. 1: A major fire broke out at a departmental store in Saheed Nagar in the early hours today, gutting property worth lakhs and triggering panic among those living in the neighbourhood.

The location of a petrol pump next door triggered the alarm bells among residents, police and fire brigade officials.

The fire broke out at All That Jazz, a multi-brand retail store at Maharishi College of Natural Law Square around 3am. It took nearly six hours for the firemen to bring the fire under control.

The reason of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

"Seven fire tenders were pressed into action to douse the flames and it took us nearly six hours to douse the fire. Around 60 fire personnel from various fire stations of the city worked together to control the fire," said assistant fire officer Trailokya Kumar Babu.

The alacrity of the fire personnel and the petrol pump owner and his staff stopped the fire from spreading there.

"We got the news of the fire around 3.30 in the morning and rushed to the place. I assembled my staff members and gave them fire extinguishers asking them to try and stop the flames from reaching the petrol pump," said Hemanta Mahapatra, owner of the filling station.

"The firemen were also alerted on time. They first put a fireman on the roof of our filling station and asked him to protect it from the flames. He put the hosepipe to good use and stopped a major mishap," said Mahapatra.

The departmental store reportedly did not have adequate fire safety measures. Sources said it only had a few fire extinguishers and no emergency exits.

A fireman said that had the store caught fire during business hours, it would have been difficult to get all the people out to safety.

Three security personnel were present at the store when the fire started but no one realised its magnitude until it was very late. Property worth Rs 50 lakh was gutted in the three-storey store, said sources.

The store is located at a prime location of Bhubaneswar with an IDBI Bank branch, ESI Office, Idco Towers and Ipicol office, among others, in the neighbourhood.

The incident has once again raised questions about the fire safety measures in high-rise buildings and other commercial establishments, including shopping malls.

Sources said not only private-owned buildings, but several government buildings were also ill-equipped to tackle fire mishaps of such magnitude.

Fire officials said all major establishments should install automatic smoke detection and fire alarms so that incidents of fire could be detected at the earliest.

Malls and departmental stores are expected to follow guidelines specified in the National Building Code, 2005.

However, these are just guidelines and not binding on the establishments.

The rules under Odisha Fire Service Act, 1993, are yet to be framed.