It turned out to be a call for a “mock drill”. Reason: to check “preparedness” of the fire department, as Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Rajender Kataria explained on Wednesday.

The call came at 4.35 pm, and the department immediately rushed two fire engines to the Mini Secretariat near Rajiv Chowk, which houses the DC office. One of the fire engines was in fact pulled out from the rescue operations at the factory site.

The insensitivity and the bad timing of the drill call did not escape police and fire officials, though none was ready to come on record.

“It becomes our priority to get into action as soon as possible when we get a call from the DC office,” Gurgaon’s District Fire Officer Hanuman Sihag said. “We had three fire tenders at the Adidas factory when we received the call.”

One was withdrawn
According to reports, 10 persons, including the district fire officer and several firefighters and workers at the unit, were injured in the blaze that broke out on Monday evening. Deputy Commissioner Kataria had, in fact, visited the site on the first evening itself and was aware of the gravity of the mishap.

Asked to explain the mock drill even under such circumstances, Kataria today said, “I was checking preparedness of the fire department and the ambulance services. (This is) just in case there is an actual fire elsewhere.”

But a senior police officer (name withheld on request) said, “Such drills are performed at normal times — when there is no real mishap.”

Gurgaon Divisional Commissioner D P S Nagal accepted that the mock drill was “wrongly timed”.

Three fire officials injured in rescue operation at the Adidas factory are still admitted in Gurgaon Civil Hospital; seven others have been discharged.

Fire officials are meanwhile still stationed at the factory, clearing debris. “Smoke is still coming out of the debris,” Sihag said. “We have stationed one fire tender at the site.”

Another fire
Meanwhile, another blaze at a transport company’s office in Kherki Daula on Wednesday afternoon claimed a worker’s life, officials said.

The incident was reported at 12.45 pm. According to district fire officials, a truck carrying thinner caught fire in front of Lalji Mulji transport company near the Kherki Daula toll plaza. The blaze was triggered by a leaking drum containing thinner, Sihag said.

He said fire officials brought out one person in an unconscious state but he succumbed on way to the hospital.