Ghaziabad: A fire ripped through five floors of a residential tower at a housing society in Indirapuram on Wednesday morning, burning down eight flats. Fortunately, around 20 people on the affected floors and in the flats were rescued on time. Around 10 people suffered minor injuries.Most residents said they were getting ready for work or preparing to send their children to school when the blaze broke out on the ninth floor of Tower D of Gaur Green Avenue, which is at the first intersection of Indirapuram with NH-9, adjacent to the Delhi border.Panic gripped floors seven through 13 for nearly 45 minutes. The ninth and 10th floors were worst affected — doors on both floors had jammed from the heat, leaving residents trapped and screaming for help till firefighters arrived and cut open the doors. To the world outside, the burning facade — visible from NH-9 and Hindon Elevated Road — became a spectacle for social media.The fire department came in for criticism, with its initial efforts failing because the jet stream fell well short of the floors on fire. This meant valuable time was lost in controlling the blaze, which spread upwards and along the building’s facade. Gaur Green Avenue has 450 flats. Tower D has 110 apartments.The fire department said it received the first distress call at 8.48 am and initially pressed five tenders into action. According to officials, the blaze originated in a 4BHK flat on the ninth floor that has been under renovation for five years. The flat is owned by Kamal Paliwal, who resides in another unit in the same building. Preliminary investigation points to a short circuit as the likely cause.Fire department officials said Tower D was inaccessible to fire tenders at first due to a park boundary wall, because of which they had to park at a distance. Small tenders, which arrived first, also lacked the pressure to throw the jet stream high enough to reach the affected floors.Chief fire officer Rahul Pai said his teams laid hose lines through the staircase up to the ninth floor, using the building’s fire suppression system as a starting point. “The fire was continuously spreading from the ninth floor upward, creating panic among residents trapped in their flats. Two teams were deployed to evacuate people via the staircases, while additional lines were laid using tenders from other fire stations to intensify firefighting efforts,” Pai said.Twelve more fire tenders were subsequently called, including from Noida, along with two hydraulic platforms. Water from the fire tenders was used to replenish the society’s fire suppression system.Pai admitted that the water didn’t reach the flames initially. “Within minutes, bigger fire engines of 22,000 and 14,000 litres capacity arrived. Small tenders navigate traffic faster, but bigger ones take longer — also because commuters on the road do not give way,” the CFO added. Firefighters, he said, broke more than 10 gates — iron and wooden — across five flats to reach trapped residents.Kunjesh Singh Panwar, president of the apartment owners’ association, said the builder had handed over maintenance of the society about a decade ago. He pointed to the park built by the builder as a key factor in the delayed response. “Access to Block D is very limited because of the park, which is why fire tenders couldn’t reach on time,” he said.A Gaurs Group spokesperson said the company was concerned about the incident and stood in solidarity with all affected residents. “Since the project was handed over, the AOA has been solely responsible for its management and operations,” the spokesperson said.Panwar added that residents whose flats were damaged have been offered temporary accommodation by neighbours, and that the AOA was attending to all their needs.Three people sustained injuries while manually activating the building’s fire suppression system. Resident Ajay Sharma of the eighth floor broke open the glass casing, pulled out the hose pipe and began dousing the fire himself. Society security guard Sonu did the same on the 10th floor. Fire department constable Randhawa Dhankad was also injured in the process. Others suffered minor injuries due to smoke inhalation.Among those rescued was 80-year-old Mohammad Ayyub, who was on oxygen support and trapped on the 10th floor. Firefighters carried him down the stairs with his oxygen cylinder and rushed him to Medanta in Noida. On the ninth floor, 60-year-old Kusum Sharma, and on the 12th floor, 54-year-old Sarika Chaudhary, were both trapped after their doors jammed shut. Sharma was hospitalised.Ruchi Sharma of flat 942 recalled that at around 8.30 am, a friend called to warn her about the fire in the flat directly opposite hers — just as she was preparing to send her children to school. When she opened her wooden door to check, she saw a wall of flames. “The fire was so intense that had my father not pulled me back, I would have been scorched,” she said.Her mother took shelter in the bathroom with the water running, while Ruchi frantically called neighbours for help. The iron door had warped and jammed from the heat. “I tried to open the door with a towel, but it was impossible,” she said. The family remained trapped for nearly 45 minutes before firefighters cut through the door and rescued them. Their flat was gutted.On the 10th floor, residents Ahmad, Pushpendra Sharma and Sandeep Pandey were also getting their children ready for school when smoke and flames rose from the flat below. They evacuated immediately, breaking their window with bricks and a stool to allow water to reach the fire inside.The blaze was brought under control in approximately two hours by 70 fire personnel, using 17 tenders, water bowsers and two hydraulic platforms. Cooling operations continued for more than an hour after. Civil Defence, medical teams, police, SDRF and other administrative officials were present throughout and played a key role in coordinating the rescue.Chief minister Yogi Adityanath took cognisance of the incident, after which district magistrate Ravinder Kumar Mandar reached the spot.
