KOCHI: A major fire broke out at a building complex housing the Bank of Baroda's regional office on TD Road on Thursday. The fire broke out in the wee hours of Thursday and it took the fire and rescue services department nearly two hours to douse the flames. "We received a call at 6.58 am, following which five fire tenders, including a water browser, from Club Road and Gandhi Nagar stations were deployed," said an officer from the department.
According to the officer, the fire was first spotted by a bicyclist, who then alerted some locals. By the time fire and rescue services department personnel had reached the spot, a major portion of the ground floor had been gutted. As the flames could not be controlled initially, 18 computers were completely gutted in the inferno."As the building was closed, we broke open its glass door. We faced difficulties because of the thick smoke inside. The situation would have been different had the flames spread to the plywood shop in the adjacent building," the officers said.
As the building housed the regional office of the public sector bank, no money was stored there. However, various documents were destroyed in the fire. Timely intervention by the fire department personnel prevented the fire from spreading to nearby buildings. Short circuit Preliminary investigations indicate that a short circuit caused the fire. KSEB officers also visited the spot to ascertain the source of the fire.