Fire breaks out at Allahabad Bank head office

Around ten fire tenders were pressed into action to douse the flames. According to preliminary investigation, officials of fire department and police found that many important documents were completely damaged in the fire. The fire department suspect that the server room of the head office of the nationalised bank had caught fire and it later spread to other portions of the building as well.

Kolkata Mayor and Fire and Emergency Services minister Sovan Chatterjee rushed to the spot and took stock of the situation. Police said that the fire broke out on the first floor of the building around 8.30 am on Tuesday and the area was soon covered with thick smoke. It created panic among some staff members of the bank, who were inside the building at the time of the incident. The people were evacuated soon by fire department and police personnel. Police also evacuated the staff members of other offices situated adjacent to the building that had caught fire.

Soon after the fire was spotted, many local people got involved in the rescue operations. The incident had triggered panic among the people who were working in the adjacent building. Had the fire spread to the other building, the incident could have taken a serious turn and led to casualties.

The fire fighters, who swung into action on war footing, managed to restrict the fire from spreading to the nearby areas. Many important offices are situated in the BBD Bag area and people from these offices came out on the street. After spendinga few hours, the fire fighters managed to bring the situation under control. However, the server room of the bank’s head office was damaged in the incident.

According to preliminary investigation, fire officials suspect that an electrical short circuit might have caused the fire. They are yet to ascertain the actual cause of the fire and the extent of the damage. Several important documents of the bank were completely gutted in the fire. No fatalities 

have reported in the office fire so far.

The fire department was examining whether fire fighting equipments were properly installed in the building. According to a senior official of the fire and emergency services department, action will be taken if there was no proper fire safety measures in the building.