HYDERABAD: A major fire broke out around 5.20 am at JP Multiplex cinema in the five-storied Tapadia Mall at Janganagar in Chandanagar in the early hours of Saturday. The fire started from the food court's kitchen in the lobby area on the mall’s fifth floor.
Over 40 fire fighters with eight fire tenders, including a fire Bronto and skylift machine, were rushed to the scene after receiving a call from the local.
“As the fire was on the fifth floor, accessing the location was a challenging task for us in the dense smoke. However, after breaking the glass, the smoke reduced. This allowed us to gain access, lay hoses from the ground floor, and successfully extinguish the fire.” said P. Giridhar Reddy, district fire officer (DFO) Kukatpally.
As the fire was spreading fast, the fire fighters had a tough time. It was eventually a collaborated effort of senior police officials, DFO and ADFO of the fire department that worked.
The fire fighters split into four separate teams and entered the fifth floor through the corridor and managed to prevent the fire from spreading further, sources in the fire department said.
They said that the fire was extinguished by 10 am using smoke exhausters.
Giridhar Reddy said that no on one present at that time.
The building management had emptied the water from emergency tankers as renovation works were underway in the vacant second, third and fourth floors of the building.
Luckily the fire doors effectively prevented the fire from spreading to the neighbouring screen area and damaging six movie screens of the multiplex, sources in the fire department said.
“The JP multiplex has a fire NOC. Its owner B. Prasad and his partners are out of station. We have asked them to come with the original NOC”, said inspector P. Palavelli from Chandanagar police station.
A case of fire accident has been registered. The total loss of property will be known after the owners report to the police, sources said.
“Both the building and JP multiplex had NOC from our department but their fire equipment was not working as there was no water stored in their water tankers,” said Mohammed Fazar, SFO Madhapur.
