Ahmedabad: Brigade call was declared by Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services for the incident of fire in Space Application Centre(SAC) of Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO).

Over 25 fire vehicles are on task to control the fire. Ambulances from ‘108’ emergency services and nearby private hospitals are called to the campus. Chief Fire Officer, Additional Chief Fire Officer, District Collector are inside the campus to supervise and guide the fire control efforts.

Smoke of fire is visible from outside the campus. Relatives of ISRO staff have also rushed to the campus. Secrecy was maintained about cause and scale of fire in view of high-security nature of this premier research institution.

District Collector Vikrant Pandey said the response time in this incident was minimum and spread of fire was controlled. He said fire was limited to one single room of one building only in this huge campus. While fire was controlled, smoke was still coming out. Fire broke out in institutional research laboratory where high frequency magnetic waves are probed. Therefore there’s no possibility of major economic loss.

Updated story

The fire in a lab building in the Space Application Center of ISRO here has been doused after around 5 hours of operation.

Additional Chief Fire Officer Rajesh Bhatt said that the fire broke out in the Antenna Testing Lab, which was an around 9 to 10 meters high structure.

Over 20 fire fighting vehicles doused the fire completely after around 5 hours of operation. The fire seemingly started at around 1230 to 1300 hrs.

He said that the exact reason behind the fire was yet to be probed.

Bhatt said that during the fire less flames and more smoke was created. The exact extent of the damage has not yet been estimated.

He said that around 4 fire fighting vehicles were still there and were involved in cooling operation in an area of around 3000 square feet.

The SAC administration and FSL were also probe the incident.

Notably, a brigade call was declared in the wake of the fire in such a sensitive place. Chief Fire Officer, Municipal Commissioner and other officials rushed to the spot.

Smoke caused by fire was visible from outside the campus.

Meanwhile, an official said that materials inside the lab and its wooden doors and other items have been damaged in the incident.

DeshGujarat