Blaze at drug controller’s office in Gurugram destroys all documents and samples
A fire at the drug controller's office in Gurugram destroyed all documents and samples. No casualties were reported. The cause is suspected to be a short circuit.
A massive blaze destroyed all the documents and samples stored in the office of the drug controller located in the dispensary at Gurugram’s Sector 45 on Tuesday night. No casualties were reported, officials said.
Hundreds of files and samples kept in the office that dealt with hookah bars, medicines, drugs, liquor samples and documents related to raids were burnt when the fire broke out, officials said. A short circuit at the office was suspected to have led to the fire.
According to officials in the fire department, they received a call around 9.15 pm that a fire had broken out at the dispensary. Six fire tenders were immediately sent to the spot to control the fire.
Haryana fire services, deputy director (technical), Gulshan Kalra, who also holds the charge of deputy director (technical), of the fire station at Sector 29, said five fire tenders from Sector 29 fire station and two from the station at Sector 37 were sent to the site within 10 minutes of the call.
“After two hours of efforts, the fire was brought under control but the dispensary records, furniture, medicines and other items were completely destroyed. Not a single document could be saved. The cause is suspected to be a short circuit and there was no foul play involved,” Kalra said.
More than 20 fire fighters deployed managed to control the fire within half an hour, fire officials said adding that no fire safety equipment was there in the office cum dispensary.
Gurugram drug control officer, Amandeep Chauhan, said that their office boy usually slept inside the dispensary and was asleep in the premises when the fire broke out. “More than 100 cases of seized sanitisers were kept in the backyard since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, that caught fire. All the office records, furniture, electrical appliances, legal documents and prosecution samples which were stored in the office were destroyed,” he said.
Chauhan said it would take at least two months to prepare all the documents that were burnt.
According to the police, they did not receive any complaint from anyone regarding the blaze. “Our teams visited the spot and preliminary investigation does not suggest any foul play,” said Varun Dahiya, Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime).