A fire broke out in the office of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) at around 6 am on Tuesday, gutting computers and files.
Two fire tenders from the Assembly and Secretariat were engaged to douse the flames and brought it under control. The fire broke out in the audit room located on the first floor.
“The analysis of CCTV footage of the camera covering the entire corridor of the first floor revealed that the rooms had been locked at around 7:45 pm (on Monday) by the Section Attendant. At around 9:10 pm, a security person closed the iron grill of the first floor,” the GHMC said in a press release.
“At around 12:50 am, a spark is visible from the Audit Wing indicating fire. As of now. there are no indications of human mischief. Hence, it is presumed that electric short circuit might be the cause of the fire accident,” it added.
The fire fighters initially struggled, as they couldn’t enter the room due to thick smoke billowing from the office.
Speaking to TNM, Hyderabad District Fire Officer M Srinivasa Reddy said that it took nearly an hour to douse the flames. “Due to the thick smoke, we couldn’t enter the building. Later, we broke open the doors and doused the flames.”
Hyderabad: All records destroyed after fire broke out in records room in GHMC central zone office in Khairatabad; two fire tenders doused the fire. No casualties reported pic.twitter.com/I2sImq79gA
— ANI (@ANI) February 6, 2018
The GHMC said that the Audit Section was next to the chambers of the Examiner of Accounts, Central Zone, which was extensively damaged.
The GHMC said that five full almirahs with papers relating to stock files and PRC bills among other things were completely gutted in the fire.
Nine systems including CPUs and monitors, along with 3 printers and one scanner had been burnt. The fire also melted a BSNL router, a 24-port switch and a media convertor device.
Around 295 running bills were also destroyed, but the GHMC said that all these bills could be rebuilt with data that was stored digitally.
As the accident took place early in the morning, nobody was there in the office. Therefore, there were no casualties.
The Saifabad police registered a case after a complaint by Central Zone Asst Examiner, Sarath Chandra, and a Clues team collected the details of the spot.
Saifabad Inspector S Venkat Reddy told TNM, “The exact reason for the fire is yet to established. There could have been some problem with the wiring, which could have led to the accident.”
Just a few days ago, in a similar incident, a fire broke out in the Road Transport Authority’s office in Khairtabad, destroying files. However, authorities clarified that all the documents have been computerised.