Fire engulfs Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority Administrative building

Visakhapatnam: A major fire engulfed first floor of the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority Administrative building located at the heart of the city at Siripuram on Monday evening. The first and second floors house the Commercial Tax department.

There were no casualties or injuries to persons; but created panic to officials and workers in the nine floor building, the tallest government building in north coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Fire tenders rushed to the spot and brought the fire under control. There was panic in the building and all the employees and visitors ran out of the building. District Fire Officer Borra Ramprakash said the fire was confined to first floor of the building only and preliminary cause was assumed to be a short circuit.

He told this correspondent that 40 personnel were deployed to put out the flames and it took them two and half hours to extinguish the fire. They broke the window panes of the floor and entered the section where the fire was severe. The teams also visited all the floors of the building to ensure the safety of employees.

Power supply to the building was withdrawn immediately and the people escaped through the steps, he added. There were 15 staff members working in the Commercial Tax department working on six computers in the old files room. Fire started from this point.

Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Tax SV Valli said the fire took place in the old files room close to the meeting hall. All the officials work in the second floor. ``Soon after the fire started, our employees alerted the people working in the remaining floors,’’ Valli said. GVMC Commissioner M Harinarayanan, DCP K Fakirappa and revenue officials were present and supervised the fire fighting exercise.