Major fire breaks out at Westend Mall in Aundh ; 8,000 people evacuated

Pune: Around 8000 people were evacuated from the West End Mall located in Aundh after a fire broke out today evening.

The Fire Brigade received a call at 8:56 pm on Wednesday evening. Immediately after which two fire brigade vehicles from Aundh and Pashan fire station along with eight firemen rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire in 15-20 minutes.

The incident took place in the exhaust duct located at the basement area (G1) where the fire broke out due to short circuit in the electrical wirings.

Shivaji Memane, fire officer said, “Considering the severity of the incident and safety of visitors, we safely and promptly evacuated more than 8000 people from the mall and extinguished the fire. There were no casualty or injury in the incident.

Memane further told that, fire fighting system of the building was in working condition, which helped us a lot to gain control over the fire and we could extinguish it shortly. As a result of which fire was confined to the duct area only and did not spread.

The incident resulted in traffic congestion and police were deployed to assist the fire fighters.