Fire breaks out at Holiday Inn

 It took eight fire engines to douse a major fire that broke out at Holiday Inn, the suburban hotel in Juhu, on Saturday afternoon.

The fire started on the third floor terrace of the new building, which is undergoing renovation ahead of its re-launch as a new five-star hotel called Novotel. Scrap material and wooden furniture lying on the third floor terrace may have caught fire. Fire engines from the neighbouring Bandra, Andheri and Marol areas had to be deployed. The hotel was evacuated, and the nearby areas were cordoned off, to prevent any mishap.

While the cause of the blaze is not known, deputy chief fire officer PB Karguppikar said the scaffolding erected for repairs on the third floor was damaged. “Although there were no casualties, one fireman suffered minor injuries from nails strewn on the floor. Only scrap material lying on the terrace caught fire,” VR Kuveskar, assistant engineer, fire officer, said. “We are yet to examine the real cause. We had to make use of eight fire engines, four water jets and four jumbo tankers to douse the flames and bring the situation under control.”

Meena Vaswani, senior representative for the soon-to-open Novotel said: “Nobody is injured. There was some construction work going on in the new building. We don’t know the real reason for the fire yet.”