Ghaziabad: Flames from a hay-laden tractor that caught fire on NDRF Road in Sadarpur village leaped to a nearby house and an adjoining shop where LPG cylinders were kept on Tuesday evening.Chief fire officer Rahul Pal said the fire station in Kotwali received an emergency call at 7.04pm and rushed one fire tender, one water bowser and another fire tender stationed at Kavi Nagar to the spot.“When the team reached the spot, the tractor loaded with hay was tilted towards a house, and the fire was spreading rapidly inside it,” Pal said. Firefighters immediately deployed two hose pipes and began pumping water to contain the blaze.The flames then spread to a shop next to the house, where two empty cylinders and one filled gas cylinder were stored. “The cylinders were removed from the shop, and the fire in the house and shop was extinguished. The blaze in the hay-laden tractor was also put out within an hour,” he said.According to the fire department’s initial findings, the blaze appears to have started after the hay came into contact with a high-tension power line.House owner Yudhveer Singh said the tractor driver fled, leaving the burning vehicle on the road. “We tried to douse the flames and also informed police by dialling 112,” he said.A window in one room and household items were damaged after the tractor tilted and the fire reached the house, he added.Shop owner Ashish Goyal managed to save some belongings, including cash, before the flames were brought under control.Pal said 15 fire incidents were reported across the district till 7pm on Tuesday, though there were no casualties. He added that two other major fires were reported in Crossings Republik — one in Tyagi Market, where around 20 shops were gutted, and another in a flat at Ajnara Gen-X.
