A fire that broke out in the government press at Mint on Tuesday gutted about 100 tonnes of scrap paper stored in its godown. The fire alert was sounded from the facility at 10.10 am and fire brigade rushed to the spot within minutes. Minister for Information and Special Programmes Implementation, KT Rajendra Balaji, visited the godown after the fire was doused. No casualty was reported.
The Minister informed that a new godown spread over 4,000 sq ft will be built at a cost of Rs 60 lakh as per an announcement made by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Fire tenders from Royapuram, Washermanpet, Vepery and Esplanade were pressed into service and it took about two hours to put out the fire completely. Besides the fire tenders, seven Metro Water lorries were also roped in to douse the fire before it spread to the main printing facility.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the blaze was reportedly caused by an electrical leakage. Assistant Divisional Fire Officer, Rajesh Kannan, said, “The place was about 4,000 or 5,000 sq ft in area nestled inside the old building. The scrap papers were dumped in a room where the fire began. The power cable running in that room was old and rusted, which is suspected to have sparked off the fire.”