A fire broke out at an outlet of Wow! Momo in the food court of Acropolis Mall in Kasba on Monday morning, triggering panic among employees in the offices and shops in the building where a blaze in June had forced the closure of the mall for 49 days.

However, this time the mall reopened by 11.10am, around 40 minutes after the fire was detected.

Monday’s fire was contained within the food outlet and did not cause much smoke, unlike the June blaze that gutted a bookshop, said officials of Acropolis Mall and the fire services directorate.

The fire services authorities had to smash glass windows in June to let the smoke escape.

On Monday, the fire alarms rang and many of the employees in offices and stores ran out of the mall, fearing a rerun of the last fire. The security personnel at the mall used fire extinguishers to douse the flames.

But the flames that were a few feet tall sparked fears about whether they would engulf the wider area in the food court.

One section of the Acropolis building, which is five-storey tall, houses a mall. The other section, with 21 storeys, has as many as 99 offices and a pub on the terrace.

Monday’s fire broke out in the food court on the third floor of the five-storey mall, which also has a cineplex. The food court has over 15 outlets.

In June, the fire broke out in a bookstore on the third floor of the mall.

“We saw CCTV footage later and found that the fire broke out at 10.29am. It was noticed at 10.32am and was completely extinguished by 10.38am. We ran some checks and reopened the mall at 11.10am,” said a senior official of Acropolis.

“We did not disturb the movie shows that had already started because we realised that everything was under control. We only delayed a show that was to start at 10.50am to run some checks,” the official said.

There were a handful of employees preparing to open their stores when the fire broke out. The mall opens at 10.30am. Following protocol, the security personnel asked them to step out of the building, said the mall official.

An official in the control room of the fire brigade said a motorbike with basic fire arrangements and a fire operator went to the mall after getting queries from reporters about the fire. The mall authorities, he said, did not call the fire brigade.

“The fire had been doused by the time the fire operator reached the spot,” the official said.

Sagar Daryani, founder and CEO of Wow! Momo, said “a malfunction in the frying equipment is suspected to have started the fire”.

“It was doused in less than four minutes,” Daryani told Metro.

Many employees in the building had run out.

“I ran down the stairs from my office on the 12th floor. This time the stairs werenot obstructed and that allowed us to leave the building quickly,” said an employeeof an office in the 21-storey building.

An employee of a retail outlet of a clothing brand said their staff was not allowed to enter the mall before noon. “Our staff reached the mall after the fire broke out. They had to wait till noon before they were allowed to enter,” he said.