A fire broke out on the third floor of the Bombay Mutual building on NSC Bose Road in Parry's before office hours on Wednesday. No one was injured in the incident. The cause of fire is said to be an electrical short-circuit.
Fire and Rescue Services sources said the fire was reported at 8.10 a.m. A security guard, who came to the six-storey building at 7.45 a.m. to open the office, found smoke emerging out of the third floor which houses the city division office of the Life Insurance Corporation of India. The guard along with a few others tried to put out the fire but failed. The Fire Department was alerted soon after, sources said.
Five fire tenders from Esplanade, Triplicane, Royapuram and Washermenpet fire stations were rushed to the spot with over 40 firemen. Water lorries and a 54-m skylift from the Kilpauk station were also pressed in to battle the blaze. “As the office was locked, we had to break open the windows. Our team managed to contain the fire within 40 minutes and it took us an additional 20 minutes to cool the floor,” said A. Ravananan, Station Fire Officer, Madras High Court.
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Wooden cubicles, furniture, electronic equipment, including computers and printers, office records and documents on the southern side of the floor were charred. The northern side were cash close to Rs. 10 lakh was kept were saved from the fire, Mr. Ravananan added.
The building constructed in 1955 did not have adequate fire safety equipment, Fire department sources said.