Ghaziabad: When a raging fire gutted at least eight flats in Indirapuram’s Gaur Green Avenue on Wednesday, it also exposed a dangerous gap between the ever-rising skylines of Delhi-NCR and the firefighting equipment available to protect them.
Ghaziabad’s fire department can reach only as high as the fourth floor. Gurugram’s sole hydraulic platform has been defunct for nearly four years. Noida has towers rising 150 to 300 metres, but the best ladder available stretches to just 42 metres. At Gaur Green Avenue, residents in adjacent buildings resorted to garden hoses while fire tenders stood about 100 metres away.
It has left people asking: if flames climb higher, who can actually reach them?
“There is so much vertical growth in the city, and we live in the farthest corner of it. To know that there isn’t sufficient equipment to douse flames is truly questionable,” said Abhishek Kumar, president of NEFOWA, a residents’ association that represents Greater Noida West. “On what basis is the authority giving fire clearances to these tall skyscraper projects expanding across Noida and Ghaziabad?”
Falling short for fires
In Ghaziabad, where residential towers in Indirapuram, Vaishali, and Raj Nagar Extension rise up to 40 floors, the fire department’s workhorse is an extension ladder of 35 to 45 feet (roughly 12 to 14 metres)—just about enough to reach the fourth floor of a standard building. Going down blocked access roads was one problem for fire tenders, going up was another.
Gurugram, home to Trump Tower at roughly 200 metres and Raheja Revanta at 56 floors, is arguably worse off. The Haryana Fire Services has a single hydraulic platform in its entire Gurugram fleet, capable of reaching 42 metres, and it has been out of service since 2022. And that too has been non-functional since 2022.
“We have raised the demand for a hydraulic ladder. We have been holding meetings after meetings with government officials. Just today a meeting was held to procure one,” a senior Gurugram fire official said. “The problem is that a ladder of sufficient height would require a lot of funds, which the department does not have. This is why every time a fire incident takes place, we have to ask DLF for help.”
In fact, there is not a single working hydraulic ladder available in Haryana at the moment. If a building catches fire above the fifth floor, chances are the fire department won’t be able to reach high enough.
Noida presents the most acute version of the problem. The city has at least 25 completed skyscrapers exceeding 150 metres. Supernova Spira, when completed, will touch 300 metres. Supertech North Eye, under construction, is expected to reach 255 metres by the end of 2026. Cyberthum Towers A and B already stand at over 213 metres each. But the best ladder in Noida can stretch only up to 42 metres, which is at best the 14th floor.
Noida’s fire chief Pradeep Kumar, however, said change is coming.
“We are currently on the path to make our fire services the best in the country. A huge amount of funds has been allotted from the UP government. A hydraulic platform of 102 metres is going to be procured soon. We are also technically checking the feasibility of firefighting drones and turntable ladders,” he said.
Kumar added that equipment for water rescue is also going to be procured — a sore point in the city since January, when 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta died after his car plunged into a water-filled construction pit in Greater Noida West during dense fog, and rescue teams could not extract him in time.
Equipment is expensive, and is quickly outgrown by buildings. Mumbai commissioned a 90-metre ladder in 2015 at a cost of Rs 16 crore, but it has already been deemed insufficient for the city’s upcoming 300-metre towers. Earlier this year, Maharashtra announced plans for ladders exceeding Chennai’s national record of 104 metres. Even Nagpur, whose tallest building is only 25 floors, received its first 70-metre hydraulic platform last year. NCR, with hundreds of towers above 50 metres and dozens above 150 metres, does not have one.
The standard official answer is that high-rise buildings are required under fire norms to be self-sufficient, with sprinkler systems, floor-level hydrants, pressurised staircases, and refuge areas. But when those internal systems fail, the maintenance of fire safety equipment in NCR’s residential towers is largely self-regulated, enforced through periodic inspections that fire departments and resident associations both acknowledge are inconsistent.
Also Read: Noida, Ghaziabad RWAs send SOS letter. We aren’t ready to fight fires like in Gaur Green
Pleas for fire drills
The morning after the Indirapuram fire, two people walked into the Ghaziabad fire department’s office asking for mock drills.
One visitor was a policewoman from a local post, seeking a drill at the Vaishali income tax office. The other was a resident of a housing society, asking for one in her building.
The chief fire officer was away, in a meeting with the district magistrate, but another senior official heard them out.
“Ma’am, there’s a lot of work right now. You must understand that there are a lot of fire calls. It’s not that a mock drill won’t be conducted, but it will take time,” he told them.
“Sir, how much time will it take?” the policewoman asked.
The fire official said he could not commit to a time.
“I’ve received so many calls, everyone is under so much pressure right now. Please send us an email,” he added.
The policewoman pressed further. Their last drill at the income tax office, she said, had been in 2024. Before that, it was in 2016.
The fire official gently chastised her, saying that was too long a gap and why it took two years to ask for a drill.
“The problem is that whenever I visit, there is always some or the other transfer that is due, something is always up,” she responded.
The official didn’t dispute it, but launched into how only big fires remind people of such issues.
“The problem is that we are unaware when it comes to fire. A tragedy has to take place and then people get worried about mock drills. Now that the Ghaziabad incident has taken place, everyone is coming to us.”
The department, he noted, has 12 stations and 17 tenders across the district.
“Seventeen vehicles are more than sufficient,” he said, “The problem is approach… to reach that height is what takes time.”
The Indirapuram fire killed no one. The next one, fourteen floors up, may not.