GHAZIABAD: A major fire broke out in a flat on the 12th floor of VVIP Addresses housing society in Raj Nagar Extension on Wednesday night when the family members were downstairs celebrating Diwali Furniture worth Rs 5 lakh and other household items were completely gutted in the blaze. No causality was reported.Around 11.30pm on Wednesday, Amarpal Singh (45), manager of an automotive applications manufacturing firm, and his wife Parul Chaudhary, HR head at a private school in Ghaziabad, had gone downstairs to meet their friends after locking the house.Their daughter and son were away at a relative’s place.About 10 minutes later, they were alerted by their neighbours about the smoke emanating from their flat. They rushed back, but could not enter the house as the key got jammed in the lock. It took them more than an hour to break open the door using hammers and saws procured from others.In the meantime, the fire department was informed and they reached the spot around 12.30am. Singh said it took an hour to douse the fire with the help of hydrants installed in the society.“The fire started due to a short circuit. Two out of the three rooms were completely gutted. Had the lock not got jammed, the loss would have been lesser. The total loss amounts to around Rs 10 lakh, which includes damage to the flat, furniture and household items,” Singh said.Singh expressed dissatisfaction over the fire department’s job. “The firemen came late and also did not have proper gear to deal with the situation,” he claimed. However, fire officials denied the allegations. Fire safety officer R K Yadav, who supervised the operation, said the team was at the spot within 15-20 minutes of being informed.

Stay updated with all the Noida Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.