Around 9 am on Thursday, a fire broke out at Gaur Green Avenue in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad If a fire like the one that destroyed residential apartments in Ghaziabad on Wednesday were to start in a higher floor of a Gurgaon highrise, a privately owned hydraulic ladder – belonging to the real estate group DLF – might have to rush to the rescue. The Gurgaon Fire Department’s only hydraulic ladder has been lying defunct at the DLF Sector 29 fire station for the last year and a half. In any case, the ladder is designed to reach only up to 42 metres – or about 14 storeys. The fire in Ghaziabad affected flats on the ninth to the 13th floors. Dozens of highrises in Gurgaon are taller, the tallest reaching well over 50 storeys. “That (defunct) ladder has reached the end of its life of around 15 years. It was repaired once it crossed 10 years, and has been lying useless for the past year and a half,” Fire Safety Officer Lalit Kumar said. The DLF ladder, Kumar said, is used for high fires in Manesar and Sohna as well.…