Officials quiet about cause of early morning fire as it ravages portion of Haveli taluka office
Officials quiet about cause of early morning fire as it ravages portion of Haveli taluka officeu00a0
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The premises of Haveli police station and taluka office was burnt down following a massive fire that engulfed the place in the wee hours yesterday. The fire was huge owing to the presence of kerosene barrels near the police station.
But, officials from the Haveli Tehsil office are tight-lipped about the reasons that might have led to the fire.
Important land records of an upmarket area, reportedly Baner, have been damaged because of it.
When asked about the possibility of sabotage behind the fire, the officials refused to comment. They also remained non-committal about instituting an inquiry to verify the cause of the fire.
"Only some documents related to accounts have got damaged. The fire did not reach the section that houses important land records," said Sunil Indalkar, an official at the land records office. "I can't say what the exact reason behind the fire is. I cannot say if an inquiry would be instituted or not."
u00a0Haveli Tehsildar Sandesh Shirke said, "The damage to our office was not very serious. Only a few sets of documents were damaged. The police are carrying out a panchnama for the same."u00a0
u00a0"Documents stored in the room were damaged. But thankfully, these were photocopies. The office has original copies of these documents and hence there is no major damage to the documents," said another official.
The Haveli police had stacked kerosene barrels in between the police station and land records building. The fire with enormous flames took more than an hour to be controlled since the kerosene barrels had caught fire.
80 ft high flames Fire station officer Shivaji Memane said, "We got a call at 4.45 am. By the time we reached the spot, huge flames had started emanating from the place as the kerosene barrels had caught fire. We had to use foam spray to control the fire. The flames were as high as 70 to 80 feet."
Memane said that the cause of the fire was not ascertained but the fire broke out from the place where the police had kept kerosene barrels. "The windows and doors of the talukau00a0 office had caught fire but the damages were avoided as the fire was controlled subsequently. A small room in the land records office, adjacent to the place where the kerosene barrels were kept, was damaged," said Memane.
u00a0Senior police inspector Satish Patil of Haveli police station said that 15 seized two- wheelers, oilu00a0 barrels, and infrastructure of the police station sustained damages. D S Bhalsingh, assistant police inspector with Khadak police station said, "The primary estimate of the damage is of about Rs 1.25 lakh. The damages can be even more. The reason of the fire is not yet known but it became stronger because of the kerosene barrels."u00a0
The Haveli taluka office houses three important offices: The land records office (circle I), Haveli taluka office and Haveli police station. Some of the records are said to be as old as 200 years. Five fire engines, two water tankers and more than 30 firemen fought the fire for more than an hour. Chief fire officer Prashant Ranpise was also present.
About 10 officers of the fire brigade escaped unhurt after the kerosene barrels burst near them. The fire officials said that they were caught unawares after the police told them that the barrels contained seized liquor. But these barrels contained kerosene. The fire brigade officialsu00a0 had a tough time owing to on going construction activities. The fire engines were parked on Shivaji road and the pipes were taken 200 feet inside the premises.
