MP: Fire alarm didn't go off, firefighters reached late, says Additional Director of Health department

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], June 13 : Additional Director of Health Department Mallika Nigam Nagar on Tuesday said that the fire alarm had not gone off when the fire broke out at Satpura Bhawan and there was also a delay in firefighters reaching the spot.

A massive fire broke out on the third floor of Satpura Bhawan on Monday evening. But later, the fire spread out up to the sixth floor of the building.

Speaking to ANI, about the incident, Nagar said, "The fire alarm did not go off. When we got the information that the fire broke out in the building, we immediately evacuated the people from all the floors of the building and also informed the fire brigade at the same time. But there was some delay in the arrival of firefighters. Two fire brigades had come on the spot but their water had run out, then arrangements of more water were made but by then it had been an hour and three to four rooms were caught on fire."

Efforts were made to control the fire so that it should not spread further but it kept on spreading and gradually reached up to the sixth floor, she said, adding that when the fire broke out on the third floor, fire extinguishers were used but it could not be doused due to the high intensity of the fire.

When asked about the reason why the fire alarm did not work, she replied, "It is a matter of investigation, the inquiry committee is investigating it and they will submit its report, then it will be known what were the actual reasons."

"Besides, the files and the documents which got damaged in the incident, we are trying to recover it soon. Now everything is available on the online system so we will try to find it. We will try our best to recover maximum files and documents. We have recovered 20 to 30 percent of the documents and the rest our team is working. We will check each and every document burnt in the incident and try to recover them," she added.

The committee constituted on the instructions of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to probe the incident also inspected the spot and collected the samples.

Head of the committee, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) home Rajesh Rajora said, "We all the members of the committee along with the forensic team, officials, electrical safety team have reached the spot and collected the samples. The team visited all the floors and tried to assess the damage and the reasons for which it happened. The team of experts is still working there. We will also record the statement of all the people and after three days we will submit our report to the government."