Several departments in the campus of Civil Secretariat was gutted in a devastating fire incident on Thursday morning, officials said.
Sources told that the fire emanated from the building at 9:10 am and within no time spread in the whole building housing departments of Higher Education, Cooperative, Science and Technology, Accounts and Treasuries and Gujjar and Bakerwall Advisory Board.
SP Security Civil Secretariat Maqsood-ul-Zaman told KNS that preliminarily investigations revealed that short circuit caused the fire. “Investigations are on and FIR has been lodged. We sealed the scene of the crime till the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) experts took the samples,” he said.
Reports said that some employees in the Secretariat campus protested against Director Estates and Fire Services Department after the incident. However, para-military CRPF personnel used force to disperse them, they added.
The employees said that they were trying to save the records from the gutted building when the CRPF personnel beat them. “We had already informed the Director Estates about the possibility of fire in the building as from the last several days there was some problem in the electric wires,” they claimed.
Director Estates M H Malik also denied the allegations of the employees. “These are baseless claim. Nothing had been brought into my notice,” he told a local news Agency.
He said that power fluctuation occurred in the whole Secretariat on Wednesday.
Director FSL Inayat-ullah Khan told KNS that a team of experts has been constituted to probe the matter. “A six member team headed by Altaf Ahmad Scientific Officer and comprising Abdul Gani Assistant Scientific Officer, Manzoor Ahmad, Incharge FSL Srinagar collected the samples in presence of police. The samples would be sent to the FSL laboratory for investigations on Friday,” he said.
The DG Fire Service G A Bhat said that they had pressed 39 fire tenders into service to douse the flames. “However, the security personnel allowed only one vehicle to enter the Secretariat campus from the main gate. Then another 17 vehicles entered through the back gate,” he said.
Bhat said the fire spread fast as the building was wooden with paint and files inside also caught fire immediately. “We doused the flames and didn’t allow the fire to spread to other areas,” he added.
Following the fire incident the Government ordered an inquiry into the incident to be conducted by Secretary, General Administration Department Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmad. The inquiry will be completed within 15 days.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah rushed from a function at Gulab Bagh to Civil Secretariat to inspect the gutted wooden block.
Taking first hand appraisal of the fire incident and receiving brief from the top brass administration and Director General Fire Services, G M Bhat, the Chief Minister gave directions for putting in place emergent measures to save the retrieved records and to house the gutted offices.
Minister for PHE, Sham Lal Sharma, Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B B Vyas, various Administrative Secretaries and officers besides President and Members of Civil Secretariat Employee’s Union were present on the occasion.
Fire in civil secretariat; several offices gutted including records
