Tons of Paper, machinery destroyed as heritage building burnt down

A massive blaze that broke out in the wee hours of Friday ravaged a British-era building at Mint here, wiping out yet another historic monument from the city landscape.
Tons of Paper, machinery destroyed as heritage building burnt down

A massive blaze that broke out in the wee hours of Friday ravaged a British-era building at Mint here, wiping out yet another historic monument from the city landscape.

The fire was noticed around 2.20 am in the ‘Red Building’ at the government’s central printing press premises on N Wall Road, which has a cluster of heritage buildings constructed mostly in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Fire and rescue services personnel reached the spot around 2.30 am, but they could do little as flames had engulfed the interiors of the building and the walls which developed huge cracks due to the heat. “Hardly ten minutes after we entered the building to spray water, a portion of the roof collapsed and we saw wide cracks everywhere. Considering the safety of the firemen, we stepped out of the building and started focusing on preventing the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings,” said the fire department’s V K Sampath Kumar, whose team reached the spot first.

As the fire consumed tonnes of printed paper and machines, the intense heat gradually weakened the one-storey building. A massive portion of the roof caved in on the rear side and a portion of the wall too collapsed about five hours after the fire broke out.

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The New Indian Express
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