20220512 Several govt documents gutted in fire
India May 12 2022 “Building” “Office bldg.”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Several govt documents gutted in fire
Updated: 2022-05-12
Patna: Most of the office records, documents, furniture and equipment on the fifth and sixth floors of the Visvesvaraya Bhavan were gutted in the fire on Wednesday morning. Fire tenders struggled for several hours to douse the flames. No casualty was reported.
The building on the Bailey Road in the state capital has several state government offices, including that of the road construction and building construction departments.
The fire broke out around 7.30am. A sweeper noticed smoke billowing from the building’s fifth floor and immediately informed the fire tender office.
Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh told TOI that the incident took place due to short-circuit in the server room on the fifth floor of the building. “Rural works department and state planning board offices are on that floor. All the fire tenders of the district were mobilised and press into service. A fire tender was called from the Patna airport and one from NTPC as well. For highrise building like this, only hydraulic fire tender is effective, so it took more time to douse the fire.”
He said the fire started on the eastern side of the sixth floor, which housed building construction department and road construction department. Around 60% offices on the fifth and sixth floors have been damaged in the fire. “Fire spread also to a few places on the third and fourth floors of the building through electric wires and cables and false ceiling. Two persons trapped in the building were rescued by the NDRF team with the help of hydraulic platform,” Singh said.
Shobha Ahotkar, director general (DG) of home guard and fire services, monitored the rescue work. She said as per the preliminary investigation, short-circuit could be the reason behind the fire. “But things will be cleared in the next couple of days only after analysing everything,” she said.
However, the DG was quite annoyed with the local police for allegedly reaching late and failing 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 gathered unnecessarily there, which could have led to untoward incident. The local police should keep public almost 200m away from the place of fire. The fire brigade staff had to work both clearing the crowd and firefighting. In such a situation, the risk of accidents increases,” Ahotkar told the media.
Altogether 16 teams from six fire stations and 15 fire tenders and three hydraulic platforms were pressed into service. NDRF and SDFR teams also joined the operation.
Web Source: The Times of India