Major fire at ISRO's antenna testing lab in Ahmedabad; none hurt

Smoke billows out of the Ahmedabad office of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) where a fire broke out on Thursday afternoon. Pic/PTI

A major fire broke out at a research facility located in the Space Application Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) here this afternoon, officials said.

Nobody was injured in the blaze, which was doused within a couple of hours, they said. "A major fire broke out inside a building, which is used as an antenna testing laboratory (for satellites). It is located inside the sprawling SAC campus in the Satellite area of the city. As many as 27 fire tenders were pressed into service," Additional Chief Fire Officer Rajesh Bhatt said.

A senior official of the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) said the fire incident was reported around 2 pm and it took almost two hours to douse the flames. The exact cause of the fire was not yet known, the official added. According to Bhatt, the blaze spread quickly due to the presence of U-Foam material on the walls of the lab. Considering the importance of the SAC campus, several senior government officials, including Ahmedabad Collector Vikrant Pandey and Joint Commissioner of Police K L N Rao, rushed to the spot along with the AFES officials.

Pandey said a team of forensic experts would conduct a study to find out the cause of fire. "Since it was lunch time, all employees were outside the facility when the fire broke out. Only one person, who tried to douse the fire, complained of breathing problems, but nobody else was injured," he said.

The SAC is a major research centre of the ISRO in the city, where payloads for satellite launched by the country are prepared. The centre was established by Vikram Sarabhai, known as the father of the Indian space programme.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever