Ghaziabad: A fire broke out at a banquet hall on the fifth floor of Banana Tree Hotel in the Link Road area in Sahibabad on Tuesday and spread to rooms on the sixth floor. Firefighters brought the blaze under control and safely evacuated 18 people. No one was injured in the blaze.Chief fire officer Saurabh Singh said officials were informed through Dial 112 around 1.30pm. Nine fire engines and several firefighters rushed to the hotel to find thick smoke billowing out of the two floors. Several sections of the hotel were under repair. A preliminary investigation suggests that a short circuit in one piece of repair equipment might have started the fire.The fire was put out within two hours with the help of a hydraulic platform and the fire engines. “We had called fire tenders from Vaishali, Kotwali and Sahibabad fire stations as well. We poured water from different directions and used the fire equipment present in the hotel to completely douse the fire,” he said.Eighteen people who were stuck in 12 rooms were evacuated. Smoke had engulfed the floors, making breathing and firefighting operations difficult, the officer said. “We had to use exhaust fans and break some of the glass windows to let out the smoke,” he added.A fire had broke out at a flat in a society in Indirapuram on Sept 16 afternoon. No injuries were reported. The blaze, caused by a short circuit in the third-floor flat of Parshvanath Majestic residential complex in Vaibhav Khand, was extinguished within 30 minutes. Household items and furniture were damaged in the fire. According to the fire department, two fire tenders and one water bowser were used to control the situation.
