100-year old office building gutted in Kangra

Dharamshala, Oct 22 (UNI) A hundred year old wooden building was gutted in a devastating fire that broke out in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh late last night, but no loss of life was reported in the incident, fire and Public Works Department (PWD) officials today said.

District Fire Officer, Sukh Dev told UNI that the fire burnt down the entire wooden building within minutes, causing a loss of over Rs one crore.

He said six fire tenders, three from Dharamshala, one each from Kangra, Palampur and Yol cantonment battled with the fire for over four hours before bringing it under control.

Six fire personnel also sustained injuries while putting off the fire, which was prevented from spreading to the adjoining building, housing the offices of the PWD Chief Engineer (North) and the SDO PWD office, he said.

Mr Dev said the fire personnel were helped by the local people in controlling the fire, which otherwise could have spread to other buildings.

The entire building, furniture and important documents were destroyed in the fire, he said, adding that the cause of the fire could not be established immediately.

Dharamshala SHO, R P Jaswal said that a case has been registered and investigations are on to ascertain the cause of the fire.

He said a short circuit or a firecracker might have caused the accident, while ruling out any possibility of sabotage.

PWD Chief Engineer (North) R S Kanwar said that a departmental inquiry has been ordered into the incident.

UNI XC AS HS MS DB2154