A fire broke out at a furniture shop in Zirakpur’s Baltana area on Tuesday morning, which destroyed furniture worth lakhs.
Luckily, nobody was injured in the blaze, which the fire department officials suspect may have been caused by a short circuit. However, a probe has been launched to determine the exact cause of the fire that gutted AK Furniture House, a fire official said.
The shop that caught fire is located on the third floor of the showroom.
The owner of the furniture house, Mohit Kumar, said that he had opened his shop at around 9 am on Tuesday and at around 10.30 am, he noticed smoke and fire on the third floor, where sofas as well as chemicals used in polishing furniture was kept. Kumar said that a room on the third floor also had some paint being stored in it.
“There was smoke and then almost suddenly the entire floor went up in flames,” Mohit Kumar said.
After being informed about the blaze, at least 12 fire tenders from Dera Bassi, Panchkula and Zirakpur were rushed to the spot and started fire fighting operations. It took the firemen at least four hours to bring the blaze under control, by which time furniture worth lakhs had been charred.
A fire brigade official later, on the condition of anonymity, said that the showroom had no fire fighting equipment in place as manded by norms. He added that a probe had been launched but prime facie it appeared that a short circuit may have caused the fire.