Dhaka: A fire broke out on Monday morning in a power sub-transmission room adjacent to the Finance Ministry building at Bangladesh Secretariat, in a close repeat of blaze in the precincts of government’s administrative headquarters.

The fire occurred around 10:15am in the room on the 3rd floor of the nine-storey building, office employees said. The blaze couldn’t spread out as the room was locked at the time, they added.

On information, firefighters rushed in and doused the flames within 20 minutes by using extinguisher. “Power connections were switched off for 30 minutes at the secretariat during this time,” said one firefighter at the scene.

Habibur Rahman, Assistant Director of the fire brigade, told banglanews24.com.bd that the fire originated from an electric short circuit.

Secretariat sources said the fire did not affect documents of Finance Ministry.

They said that the room that isn’t monitored everyday is used as storeroom for cables of the building.

Supervisor of the power room Musa Bin Habib, however, told journalists that the incident occurred since the cables of the Secretariat were very old.

BDST: 1416 Hrs, May 17,2010
UB/SA/SMS/MUA