- Residents used a bamboo and wooden ladder bridge to escape a Noida building fire
- Fire started on ground floor where an electric vehicle was charging, spreading quickly
- At least 50 families lived in the four-storey building with 12 rooms per floor
Desperate residents made a makeshift bridge with bamboo sticks and a wooden ladder to escape a massive fire that engulfed their four-storey building in Noida's Sector 66.
The fire, which started on the ground floor, soon spread upwards and dense smoke engulfed the upper floors of the building in Mamura village.
According to police, the ground-plus-four building housed at least 50 families.
Each floor had 12 rooms, which were being shared by multiple people. As the fire on the ground floor blocked the exit, residents escaped just in time using a makeshift route from the terrace.
Scary videos from the site showed people crossing to the adjacent building via a precariously placed makeshift bridge.
Residents trying to escape the Noida building fire
Police said the fire started on the ground floor where an electric vehicle was being charged. A spark in the EV is believed to have ignited the fire, which then spread to nearby petrol vehicles and soon went out of control.
Two people have been killed while other residents were rescued.
"The fire services responded immediately and evacuated the residents. The building had parking on the ground floor where the fire broke out and then smoke travelled upwards, affecting the occupants," Rajeev Narain, Joint Commissioner, Gautam Buddha Nagar, told mediapersons.
Fire started in an electric vehicle that was being charged
The scenes of people escaping the fire through a makeshift bridge between the two buildings have an eerie similarity to a fire at a Delhi hotel last month. Many people were seen jumping from the upper floors onto the road to escape the blaze at a hotel in Hauz Rani, Delhi, that killed 21 people.
The incident again highlights the absence of proper exit routes in buildings in case of fire. Police said the owner and the leaseholder of the building have been taken into custody and are being questioned.
