20220511 Patna: Fire breaks out at Visvesvaraya Bhavan, no causalities reported
India May 11 2022 “Building” “Office bldg.”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Patna: Fire breaks out at Visvesvaraya Bhavan, no causalities reported
Updated: 2022-05-11
PATNA: A major fire broke out on the fifth floor of the Visvesvaraya Bhavan, also called as the technical secretariat located on Bailey Road under the Secretariat police station area in state capital on Wednesday morning, but it was brought under control in couple of hours after the incident has been reported.
Most of the offices housed on fifth and sixth floor were gutted in the fire including office records, documents, furniture and equipment. Fortunately, no causality has been reported in this incident. The fire started around 7.30am, when a sweeper noticed smoke coming from the building’s fifth floor, he immediately informed the state department and fire office, following which fire tenders have been pressed to souse off the fire.
According firemen, the flames soon spread on third, fourth and sixth floor of the building while two laborers trapped on the seventh floor, which is under-construction, have been rescued by the team. Altogether 16 teams from six fire stations have reached to the spot and 15 fire tenders and three hydraulic platforms have been pressed into service. NDRF and SDFR team also joined the rescue operation.
Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh told this newspaper that the incident took place around 7.30am due to short-circuit in the server room on the fifth floor of Visvesvaraya Bhavan. “There are two offices on this floor including rural works department and state planning board. All the fire tenders of the district has been mobilized and some tenders from the state fire office have called and put into action. A fire tender was called from the Patna airport and NTPC as well. For high rise building like this, only hydraulic fire tender is effective, so it take more time to douse of fire,” he said.
“The fire also started on eastern side of the sixth floor, which housed building construction department and road construction department. Around 60% offices on fifth and sixth floor have been damaged in the fire. Fire also caught at few places on the third and fourth floors of the building through electric wires and cables and falls ceiling, which has been doused off by the team. Two people trapped in the building were rescued by the NDRF team with the help of hydraulic platform,” Singh said.
Sobha Ahotkar, director general (DG) of home guard and fire services reached the spot with the team and monitored the rescue work. She said short circuit could be the reason behind the fire incident, as per the preliminary investigation, but things will be cleared in next couple of days only after analyzing everything.
The DG was quite annoyed that the local police have not reached the spot and failed to maintain the law and order situation at the place of incident. “The ACS Home has prepared the SOP for all the departments in case of fire. We have followed the SOP and reached the spot on time. I am not going to do the law and order thing, my job is firefighting and my department has been doing it. Many people were gathering unnecessarily at the spot, which could have led to untoward incident. The local police should keep public almost 200m away from the place of incident. The fire brigade staff had to work on clearing the crowd and also firefighting. In such a situation, the risk of accidents increases,” Ahotkar told media persons.
Web Source: The Times of India