Tardeo Building Fire: "This" Led To Spread Of Flames; Cause Remains Unknown

Nearly after a month, the inquiry committee has submitted a detailed investigation report into the Tardeo Highrise fire at the Sachinam Heights building in Grant Road to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.

However, it has come to light the inquiry committee in the report concluded that the cause of the deadly fire remains unknown.

In its report, the committee pointed that duct doors on many floors were left open, with Internet and TV cables wires coming out of it. This was the reason behind the quick spread of the fire from the first floor to the 20th.

On top of that, the duct had many flammable articles, like cricket bats, stumps, wooden plates, jute ropes and wheelchairs, states the report.

The flames largely spread on 14th, 16th, 19th and 20th floors, as the duct doors were open. Fortunately, the doors to the terrace were locked, which blocked the smoke plume.

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Post the investigation, what came to the fore is that the duct doors wherein TV and internet wires were connected, were left open on many floors of the 20-storey building that led to the quick spread of fire.

The report of this inquiry committee was submitted to the municipal commissioner in the last week, but it was made public on Wednesday, February 23.

Officials said that the duct generally has holes for wires to pass through, but in the building, the doors were kept open, causing the fire to spread rapidly on these floors. The distance between the duct and doors of the adjacent flats were less than two feet.

The fire broke out in the 20-storey building on January 22, and claimed nine lives. Many others were also injured. Later in the day, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal ordered an independent enquiry into the fire incident, to look into three aspects: cause of fire in consultation with chief fire officer, reasons of the spread of fire causing death of people, illegal addition / alteration in the building beyond approved plans, if any.