Forensic probe on cause of fire in Statesman House

Kolkata, Apr 1: A five member team of forensic experts today visited the gutted portion of the heritage Statesman House to investigate the causes of last night's devastating fire in the newspapers' office.

The team, led by the Assistant Director of the state Forensic department, searched through the rubble, including the gutted equipment and machinery, to trace the cause of the fire, which was suspected to have originated from an electrical short circuit on the ground floor of the five-storey building. They also collected some samples from the rubble for further investigation.

A team of senior police officials also visited the spot and questioned some of the newspaper employees in this connection.

Meanwhile, the electric connection in the building have been restored by the CESC and all out efforts were being made to publish the regular edition of the daily and not a truncated version from tomorrow itself.

A large portion of the ground and first floor of the South East end of the century-old heritage building of the Stateman house was gutted in a major fire that broke out at around 2030 hrs last night, causing extensive damage to the building and property.

Twenty fire tenders fought for nearly five hours to control the flames. However, immediate disconnection of power lines by the CESC had prevented any further damage.

Later, with the help of generators the Statesman employees led by Editor-in-Chief Ravinder Kumar, succeded in bringing out a truncated version of the daily this morning.

UNI