Navi Mumbai: A major fire broke out in a 20-storeyed residential building Geetanjali Tower in Sector 34, Kharghar, reportedly due to a short circuit in the electrical duct on the seventh floor around 1pm on Wed. Fortunately, there was no casualty as the fire did not spread to the apartments. The Kharghar fire brigade team evacuated around 400 residents of the building after smoke spread till the top floor.Pravin Bodkhe, fire officer at Kharghar, said, “We recieved the emergency call of fire breakout at Gitanjali tower around 1.18pm. Our fire fighting team reached the building with two fire engines and Bronto Skylift at 1.30pm. As we reached the building, a car was parked in the passage that blocked the way. A group of men residing in the building lifted the car and dragged it aside to make way for the fire engine. The fire had spread till the 10th floor. It took around an hour to extinguish the fire and another one hour for cooling operation. While most of the residents had rushed downstairs after building was filled with fire smoke, the fire fighters evacuated several residents on the upper floor.”Fire officer Bodkhe said, “In Gitanjali Tower, built around 16-years ago, the electrical duct is not sealed on every floor, which is mandatory as per the fire safety norms. Hence, the fire on the 7th floor’s electrical duct had spread to the upper floors. The office bearers of the old residential buildings need to seal the electrical duct on every floor. Also, the residents claimed that they tried contacting the Kharghar fire station on the landline number available on online, but it was non-functional. But, every building’s notice board should display the landline number. The updated landline number of Kharghar fire station is ‘’022 6936 5700′ and ‘02269365704′.