Gas pipeline, power switched off: How prompt action saved the day

Ghaziabad: It was noon. Shaili Nag was finishing her day’s work when loud noises outside startled her. The resident of Arihant Harmony rushed to the balcony of her ground-floor flat at Vista-2 tower and found one of the generators outside spewing fire.
“Within a flash, a few fuel drums caught fire and the flames started reaching my neighbours’ flat.It immediately struck me that an LPG pipeline runs close to the tower and a bigger tragedy could unfold if it caught fire,” Nag told TOI.
In the next few minutes, the woman in her mid-50s ran frantically from one flat to the other asking people to switch off their gas pipeline. According to fire department officials, switching off gas was one of the few steps taken by society residents that prevented a bigger catastrophe.
At least four flats — one each on the ground to third floors — in the tower next to the generator shed were gutted in the fire that raged for nearly 30-45 minutes before it was doused.
S Mukherjee (78), a tenant on the ground floor of the building, said he was getting ready to take a shower when smoke began to enter his flat through the balcony. “It was overwhelming. Thankfully it was a Saturday and my son-in-law, Kaustuv Som, was at home. He immediately took us out of the flat,” Mukherjee said.
Once outside, he saw the fire quickly spreading to the upper floors. “I grabbed the garden hose pipe and tried to use it. But since there was no power in the society, the pump did not work,” he said.
The family lost furniture and electronic items worth nearly Rs 3 lakh in the fire. “For now, the AOA has opened an empty flat for us. I don’t know what waits for us tomorrow,” he said.
Despite panic and chaos, the neighbours rallied together, shouting instructions to “pull down all MCBs” and assisting residents affected by the smoke. “We didn’t wait for the firemen. Just started shutting down the MCBs,” Shrishti, another resident of the society from the tower, said.
Shalini Pathak, whose third-floor flat was also gutted, said, “I mistook the smoke for rain clouds and rushed to the balcony to pick up a few items, but the smoke hit me. I somehow managed to call Brijesh, my husband, who was away. He told me to forget everything and run outside,” she said.
Residents said the security guard had promptly removed two gas cylinders from a ground-floor flat preventing further escalation of tragedy.
By evening the embers had died out, but anger was palpable among residents many of whom blamed the AOA for not replacing the 14-year-old diesel generator earlier.
BK Pandey, the AOA manager of the society, said, “Residents whose flats were gutted will stay in the empty flats of the society temporarily. Further decision will be taken in a meeting later.”