Shocking incidents of two persons being killed to a massive fire which reportedly came upon while people were charging an electric vehicle in a residential building in the Mamura village in Noida on Wednesday night are unfolding. The fire started in a parking area on the ground floor and quickly engulfed petrol-powered cars nearby and swept through the multi-storey structure and caused heavy smoke within.
After the incident, teams of firefighters reached the site with seven fire tenders, hydraulic platform type vehicles and rescue vehicles. A major rescue was conducted in an attempted evacuation, which successfully saw approximately 50 residents and families evacuated from the G+4 residential building and the fire extinguished.
However, the initial investigation reveals that the blaze appears to have started when an electric vehicle’s charging infrastructure was being used before flaring into the vehicles parked on the side, said Joint Commissioner of Police Rajeev Narain. The smoke quickly spread through the building, impacting upper floor residents.
Two people had serious health problems because of smoke inhalation and were taken urgently to the district hospital. Although treated by a doctor, both died as a result.
An FIR has been registered along with the owner of the building and the leaseholder have been arrested in the ongoing investigation. The officials are looking to see if safety standards pertaining to fire and building code were breached.
The event has once again brought into focus the issue of fire safety in apartments and other residential buildings, including emergency access plans and the deployment of charging stations for electric vehicles. Authorities will likely do a thorough investigation to find out everything about the cause of the fire and what went wrong.