An explosion in an air conditioner caused a fire in a Noida flat this morning. The incident took place at Lotus Boulevard society in Sector 100, and no casualties have been reported so far, officials said. The incident occurred amid North India\’s scorching heatwave, which added to the panic among residents. As thick smoke billowed from the burning flat, people from adjacent units were evacuated and rushed to the ground floor.

Chief Fire Officer Pradeep Kumar Choubey provided details about the incident. He said that locals and residents of the society informed the fire service control room around 10:10 am about the fire on the 10th floor of the building.

\”We immediately sent five water tenders to the location. However, before our vehicles could reach there, the firefighting systems installed in the society extinguished the fire within 10 minutes,\” Choubey said.

He explained that an explosion in an air conditioner caused the fire. Due to the effective functioning of firefighting systems—sprinklers, extinguishers, and hoses—installed at strategic points, the fire was contained to one room of the flat while other parts remained safe. This quick response saved lives.

Watch: A fire breaks out at Lotus Boulevard Society Noida, Sector 110 pic.twitter.com/3tq9mUfqV4

— IANS (@ians_india) May 30, 2024

An “AC blast” usually refers to an incident where an air conditioning unit explodes or catches fire. Such incidents can be triggered by various factors, mostly related to electrical or mechanical failures such as short circuits, overheating of components, or malfunctioning of the compressor, which can lead to an explosion or fire in the AC unit.

Meanwhile, Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received over 200 calls on Wednesday, of which 183 were related to fire incidents—marking the highest number of calls received on a single day this year, officials said.

Additionally, Delhi recorded a significant rise in power demand, which touched a peak load of 8,302 MW at 3:36 pm on Wednesday. This is the highest power demand ever recorded in the history of the national capital, surpassing the previous record of 8,000 MW registered just a few days earlier on May 22. The rise in power demand is mainly due to the ongoing heatwave, which has led to increased use of air conditioning and cooling appliances across the city.