A fire broke out at the Ajni Railway Colony health unit of Central Railway’s Nagpur Division, triggering sensation. The fire, whose cause is yet to be determined, was noticed on Sunday morning by the Colony residents. It started from the southern side of a building that was constructed in the year 1956. It houses the office of Chief Health Inspector as well as a dispensary for Ajni Railway Colony, it is one of the biggest in Indian Railways. Railway officials said the fire, though not very big, had prospects of gutting down the entire building as there is major use of timber in the construction. Hence, the fire spread quickly into the room that was a store-house for the materials used by the Health Department. Another adjoining small room, a chamber for doctors, was also covered by the fire. Although Fire and Emergency Services Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) was informed about the fire quite immediately, the firemen team took some time to reach the exact spot, said the people who were present at the spot. Satish Yadav, Member, Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC), said the firemen, on reaching the spot, got into action as the flames were spreading quite rapidly. The light wind only added to concerns, but the fire-fighting personnel were quite professional in their approach.

 

As per information, the fire brigade team got confused about the exact location and hence were a bit delayed and by that time the timber material of the building got devoured. Had the fire fighting team not reached in nick of time, then the flames would have become uncontrollable and soon covered entire building. However, the Fire Brigade team reached by 9 am and started spraying water to put out the flames. Within half an hour, the flames subsided and those present at the spot heaved a sigh of relief. The firemen had a tough time in starting the operations due to presence of large number of onlookers and due to their curiosity and penchant for filming the operation, making firefighters’ task a little bit difficult. After about two and half hours of spraying the water, the fire was finally doused. Railway officials said the loss is notional and fortunately it being Sunday, the office and the poly-clinic was closed.