Fire breaks out at Telangana's secretariat getting ready for inauguration

HYDERABAD: A fortnight ahead of its planned grand inauguration, a part of Telangana's new secretariat building near NTR Gardens went up in flames after a fire broke out inside the under-construction building during the wee hours of Friday. As many as 11 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames following which authorities set up a tight security around the area to restrict access.
The extent of the damage is yet to be ascertained.
Fire officials said they received a call around 2.20 am and immediately rushed their teams to the location. They suspect the fire started from the ground floor and spread to a room on the first floor - situated on the Mint Compound side. Smoke was seen billowing from the roof of the seven-storied structure for a long time after the incident.
Though the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, preliminary investigation hints at an electrical short circuit where woodwork was being done. Apart from wood, there was also plastic material piled up which led to the fire easily spreading across the room," a senior fire official told TOI confirming that no workers were inside the room at the time of the fire.
He said power supply to the fire-hit portion of the building was switched off to avoid further damage.
Director general of the state fire services department, Nagi Reddy, who personally monitored the firefighting operation said it took the team almost four hours to bring the situation under control. "By 6 am, we managed to douse the flames. But because of the thick smoke fire brigades had to wait for a while before entering the building," he said.
Saifabad police, meanwhile, registered a case of accidental fire and started an inquiry.
Cops also barricaded the area and detained Congress activists heading towards the secretariat building to stage a protest in Gandhi Nagar.
At present, work is on in full swing at the site to complete the pending wiring, false ceiling, wood work etc to get the building ready for the opening scheduled for February 17 which is chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's birthday.