CHENNAI: A fire broke out in the Central Excise and Customs office on Rukmani Lakshmipathy Road, Egmore on Saturday morning. An entire portion of the building was gutted and some official records were damaged, a senior fire officer said. None was there in the building then.
The Additional Director General (Audit) office of central excise is on the third floor of Rani Meyammai Hall, Egmore. Around 7.50 am guards noticed smoke billowing out of the building. They alerted fire personnel and fire-tenders from Vepery, Egmore, Kilpauk, Teynampet scrambled to the scene. “The cause of the fire seems to be electrical short circuit. The fire was extinguished by 9.30 am,” TNFRS joint director S Vijayasekar said. The exact cause is yet to be identified.