By IANS,
New Delhi : A major fire Tuesday that broke out at a conference room in one of the complexes in the capital’s Pragati Maidan exhibition grounds was doused and there were no reports of any casualties, officials said.
The fire, which broke out around 7 a.m., spread to 1,500 sq m area of the conference room in Hall No. 7 of Pragati Maidan.
“No one was hurt. It took 20 fire tenders four hours to douse the fire in two hours. The cause of the fire is not known,” said an official of the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), which manages Pragati Maidan.
The conference hall at the first floor was to host a three-day conference by the UN Global Alliance ICT and Development. It was scheduled to begin around 9 a.m.
“The hall was booked for three days as the innovation and exhibition of 4th India Information & Communication Technology (ICT) event,” said the official.
According to police officials, the entire area on the first floor was handed over to the conference organising authorities but at the time of fire no one was present inside and a tragedy was averted.
The material damage is estimated to be in millions of rupees. Investigating officials said short-circuit could be the reason behind this massive fire, which was declared as ‘level six’ fire by the fire department.
A five-member committee comprising of two ITP officials, one Delhi Police officer, one Delhi Fire Service and one official from the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has been constituted to ascertain the cause of fire.