A massive fire that broke out early Friday morning has destroyed the Vadakara taluk office building in Kozhikode district.
According to Fire and Rescue Services personnel, several files along with office equipment and computers were gutted in the incident. The fire broke out around 5.30 a.m. on Friday. A nearby treasury office building was also affected by the fire, they said.
Rescue units from Vadakara, Thalassery and Nadapuram fire stations were part of the four-hour-long effort to douse the flames. No one was injured in the incident.
Revenue department sources said the fire reportedly spread from a small nearby building with a tiled-roof. The taluk office was also functioning in an old building with heritage status, which was restored recently, they said.
District Collector N. Tej Lohit Reddy said all major files at the taluk office had already been digitised and there was no need for panic over the damage of physical records in the fire.
Mr. Reddy, who visited the spot to coordinate the rescue operations, said immediate action would be taken to shift the functioning of the affected revenue office to another building. He said an investigation was under way to find the reasons behind the fire.
A team of senior Revenue department officers, police and people’s representatives were present at the spot. Nadpuram MLA E.K. Vijayan, who fainted while overseeing the firefighting operation, was admitted to the Kozhikode District Hospital at Vadakara.
District Police Chief (Kozhikode Rural) A. Sreenivas said a special squad would be formed to probe the fire outbreak. The investigation will be led by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Vadakara.
Along with the police, officials from the Electrical Inspectorate will also conduct a field inspection to ascertain the cause of fire. They will submit the final report in two days following the Collector’s order.
Soon after the incident, a few elected representatives and government officers from the area had raised suspicions about the fire outbreak. According to them, there were many important documents related to land acquisition and land ownership in the office building, which were destroyed in the fire. About 85% of such files were lost in the incident, they claimed.
