Thiruvananthapuram: A fan that was spinning non-stop was the cause of the fire at the protocol office in the General Administrative Department (GAD) (Political) of the Secretariat, the fire brigade has said. The fire, however, erupted after its personnel arrived at the office, it said.
A short circuit caused by the fan running continuously resulted in the fire. Initially, there was only a smoke, but the fire erupted due to a gush of wind when fire force officials opened the room, according to a report from fire services DGP R Sreelekha.
An inquiry by the Public Works Department also found the fan to be the cause of the fire. The police will on Friday examine the surveillance cameras installed in the area where the fire broke out.
The protocol office had an air conditioner. Even then, the wall fan was running the whole day. The plastic material in the portion with the fan’s motor began to melt due to heat. The melted plastic fell on the curtains and papers on the shelves, burning them and resulting in smoke.
Since all the windows were closed, the smoke filled the room and it soon spread outside through the doors. The first person to see the smoke was an employee in the office of minister K Krishnankutty. The fire force Unit at the Secretariat was immediately alerted. The fire spread when its personnel arrived and opened the door.
The government is now waiting for the report of the committee formed under Disaster Management commissioner A Kaushik with experts from various departments to investigate the fire.
The police will submit their report after forensic examination and inspection of CCTV footage.
Govt had sanctioned Rs 1 crore for fire safety measures
The Kerala government had sanctioned an amount of Rs 1 crore in 2013 for measures to prevent fire at the state Secretariat. After Tuesday’s fire at the protocol office, many are wondering if the amount was used properly.
The central government had issued a stern directive to all state secretariats to put safety measures in place after a fire killed three people at the government secretariat in Maharashtra in 2012.
In the wake of the Centre’s instruction, a cabinet meeting chaired by the then chief minister Oomen Chandy took a decision to allocate the money for fire safety at the Secretariat. But the current fire shows that the decision has not been implemented.
It was decided to set up a system to sound an alarm in case of a smoke or a fire, to install fire extinguishers, to set up a fire station on the premises of the Secretariat and to ensure the availability of fire engines at all times and to lay pipelines to supply water to all parts of the Secretariat. The decision was to be implemented under the leadership of the Home Department.
The question now is whether the money was spent on implementing the decision or if it was used for some other purpose.
When there was fire and smoke on Tuesday, there was no alarm. Neither did any fire sprinkler douse the fire. In fact, water had to be fetched in buckets to put out the fire.
No camera at spot where fire broke out
Thiruvananthapuram: The police will inspect all the files in the protocol section to determine the ones that were destroyed in the fire. They have also demanded the CCTV footage of the office corridor taken in the last five days.
The investigating agency has written to the chief secretary seeking temporary restriction on the movement of files in the General Administration (Political) Department.
Cameras have not been installed at the spot where the files were destroyed. The police want to check if anyone had entered the office that was closed for disinfection.
Samples from the room that caught fire would be sent through the court for forensic examination.
The preliminary investigations of the police don’t suspect any foul play behind the fire.
Meanwhile, efforts are on to show that only a minimal number of files were destroyed by the fire. Most of the destroyed items were copies of government notices and records of guest bookings, say authorities.
After minister G Sudhakaran, his colleague Kadakampally Surrendan also said on Thursday that the fire was caused by a short circuit.
Investigating teams are peeved by ministers giving the purported cause for the fire even before forensic reports come in.
The police team led by ADGP Manoj Abraham and the team of state government officials led by disaster management commissioner A Kaushik will find themselves in a spot if some other cause emerges after their investigations.
No important files lost: CM
Thiruvananthapuram: Initial reports on the fire at the state Secretariat on Tuesday have said that no important files have been destroyed, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
Some files were partially burned. The government is ready to give any file the NIA seeks as part of its investigations into the gold smuggling case, he said.
The opposition raising allegations about the fire incident need not be in a rush. People have been entrusted with the investigation into the fire. They will investigate everything. Let the report of the investigations come out.
A technical committee has been appointed to look into the fire. It will ascertain the loss due to the fire and the files that were destroyed and will recommend steps to be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future. The committee has been asked to submit a report within a week, Vijaya said.
After the fire, BJP activists should not have barged into the Secretariat by disregarding security measures. The BJP and the Congress are trying to add new dimensions to the incident.
As with other protests, BJP president K S Surendran came first and he was followed by UDF activists, the chief minister said.
They even violated the high court order banning protest groups in view of the COVID pandemic, he said.
