A fire broke out in an air conditioner unit on the fourth floor of one of the towers at Urbana housing complex in Anandapur on Monday morning.
Two fire tenders rushed to the spot, but staff members of the complex had doused the flames by the time they arrived. Police said the fire was reported in the outdoor AC unit of flat 0406 in Tower IV around 10.40am.
Residents stepped out of their apartments and watched as a staff member, using a safety harness, reached the seat of the fire. Several residents evacuated their flats as a precaution and assembled on the ground floor. “I heard the siren of the fire brigade and rushed out to see that there was a fire in Tower IV. Fortunately, our staff members had already brought it under control before the fire tenders arrived,” said a resident of Tower II.
A firefighting-trained support staff member used a safety harness to hang from the building and reach the burning AC unit, while another staff member supervised the operation from a fourth-floor staircase landing. Residents identified the supervisor, sitting on the window with one leg dangling, as Shankar Mukherjee. The man in the harness, Ashoke, was nicknamed “Spider-Man” by residents.
The fire had been extinguished by noon. No one was trapped or injured.
“We were lucky it was a small fire. But those of us living on the upper floors are concerned. I have instructed my help that in any emergency, even if I am not home, my family should be escorted downstairs first. It takes around 15 minutes to reach the ground floor from the 33rd floor,” the resident said, echoing the worries of several others.
Fire department officials said the cause of the blaze is still under investigation.
On Monday evening, Urbana issued a circular stating that multiple lapses had been observed in the emergency systems, including the alarm and sprinklers, as well as protocols for assisting the elderly and sick during evacuation. The management announced an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address the issues.
