Bhubaneswar: Property worth lakhs of rupees was gutted in a fire at a shopping mall near Damana in the early hours of Thursday. Though the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, fire officials suspect short circuit.

The incident came to light around 5am when a security guard deployed at the mall noticed smoke.

"I saw smoke coming out of the second floor of the four-storey building and immediately informed the fire control room," said Pardeep, the security guard.

Deputy fire officer, Bhubaneswar, Ramesh Chandra Majhi said they received the information at 5.15 am.

"Six fire tenders were used to douse the flames. As many as 42 fire officials along with a hydraulic platform was pressed into action and the fire was controlled within two hours. Timely intervention saved other shops in the mall," said Majhi.

Sources said that the mall had been for the past four years but did not have fire safety certificate. Besides, fire officials found the mall lacking adequate fire safety measures.

"Though fire extinguishers were present in the mall, their number was adequate to tackle a fire. Luckily there was no one in the mall when the incident took place," said a fire official.

In November 2013, panic had gripped a shopping mall at Jayadev Vihar following a fire on the mall's ground floor. Though around 2,000 visitors were present during the mishap, no one was injured. Fire officials said that they would shortly start an inspection of shopping malls in the city to find out whether they were equipped to deal with fire accidents.

The regulation states that the shopping malls need to have several fire fighting measures including wet riser, hose reel, automatic sprinkler system and yard hydrants. These establishments need to have terrace tanks, fire pump, auto-detection system, illuminated exit signs, manual electrical fire alarm system, hose boxes with delivery hoses and branch. Besides, the establishment needs to have sufficient space for evacuation and operation of fire tenders.