Major tragedy averted as fire engulfs rooms of UP ministers

Lucknow, Apr 13 (UNI) A major tragedy was averted today as a fire broke out in the offices of two ministers in the multi-storeyed 'Bapu Bhawan', the extension of state secretariat, housing offices of ministers and senior bureaucrats.

The fire, which was triggered possibily due to a burning cigrette, soon engulfed the rooms of Minister of State (Finance) Shahid Manzoor and Minister of State (Programme Implementation) Virendra Singh Bundela.

While Bapu Bhawan was evacuated immediately after the fire, panic gripped the adjacent main Secretariat buildings and Annexe building which, house the Chief Minister's office.

No one was injured in the incident but substantial loss to government property has been reported.

Fire tenders from the nearby Hazratganj fire stations reached the spot and controlled the fire from spreading to other rooms.

Chief Fire Officer (CFO) J K Singh told UNI the ante-room of Mr Manzoor was gutted in the fire while the room of another minister was destroyed partially. The inner fire fighting sytem, intalled at Bapu Bhawan to respond to such exigencies, had failed and outside fire tenders controlled the fire. ''The matter is subject to probe,'' he added.

''We had to vacate the entire eight floor building as smoke was clogged due to the fire'', Mr Singh said.

Meanwhile, the Secretariat Employees Union has demanded a high- level probe into the incident following failure of the building's fire fighting system. ''Recently the state government spent crore of rupees for installing a new system but it failed to work,'' the leaders alleged.

UNI MB/NAB ARS HS BST1820