12 have narrow escape after blaze at escape room in Connaught Place

According to officials, the fire broke out at least a couple of minutes before it was reported to DFS

Twelve people had a narrow escape when a fire broke out at an escape room in Connaught Place on Sunday afternoon, fire department officials said, adding that no injuries were reported in the incident.

Firefighters try to douse the fire on Sunday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT)

The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received a call at 3.21pm about the fire at Mystery Rooms, which is located on the first floor of M block in the outer circle near Shankar Market. Prima facie, the fire broke out due to a short-circuit in the air-conditioner (AC) in a room near the entry/exit point of the establishment, fire officials said.

“We rushed five fire tenders with 20 firefighters to the spot. The blaze was doused in a one-and-a-half-hour operation by 5pm. Our firefighters carried out a search operation inside the premises to find out if anyone was trapped inside, but no one was. No injury or casualty was reported,” said DFS chief Atul Garg.

“The fire caused damage to only two of the 150 escape rooms of Mystery Rooms. Since the incident occurred on a Sunday when there was a high footfall in Connaught Place, the quick response by firefighters averted a major incident,” a fire official said on condition of anonymity.

According to officials, the fire broke out at least a couple of minutes before it was reported to DFS.

According to fire station officer Prem Lal, who led the firefighting operation, employees and customers present inside the premises rushed out of the building when they saw flames and smoke. The flames billowing out from a window were also visible from the main road.

According to Lal, the 150 small rooms inside Mystery Rooms were built with wooden items. The premises cover an area of 50x150 square feet. As part of the games, people are locked in the rooms and given puzzles to solve within a time frame to successfully escape from the room.

When HT contacted a customer care agent (executive) of Mystery Rooms, Delhi-NCR, the executive said, “We cannot say anything at this moment,” and disconnected the call.

Deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Devesh Kumar Mahla said he was collecting information about the fire incident.

On May 25, a massive fire broke out at a gaming zone in Rajkot City in Gujarat, resulting in the death of at least 27 people, including children.