THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the report by Kerala State Forensic Science Laboratory stated that the fire erupted at the Secretariat General Administration department was not due to a short circuit, the Special Investigation Team of Kerala Police on Monday released a graphical video saying that the fire broke out from a wall-mounted fan.
Releasing the graphical video, the police said the fire was due to overheating of motor winding due to poor insulation. The overheating caused a spark, leading to the fire spreading as the fan was on rotation mode. The fire caught the nearby table on which many files were kept. That's how the files gutted.
The police are expected to give a detailed explanation of the fire soon. A month ago, the forensic team submitted a report to the police stating that they could not find any possibility of a short circuit after inspecting the wires connected to the fan from the switch. Earlier, there was an initial finding that the fire could have been triggered by the fan due to a short circuit.
Earlier, the chief electrical officer of the Secretariat had also submitted a report to the forensic team and SIT making it clear that the fire was not due to a short circuit.
According to the investigation team, as many as 10,000 pages of various files had been partially burnt. However, the officers said all the destroyed files have equivalent soft copies in the e-file system. The categorization of files was completed with the help of 13 officers from various departments in the Secretariat. The team said all the files pertaining to the government notifications to various departments. The team had also scanned the damaged files for safe storage in the e-file system. The fire broke out at the protocol division of the General Administration department, in which several office files were gutted.
It occurred at a time when the working of the protocol office was under the scanner after it emerged that officials here had made lapses while dealing with diplomatic baggage destined for the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram. The fire was first noted in one of the computers by 5 pm. Shortly, it engulfed a portion of the office. Due to Covid-related restrictions, only two employees were present there at that time.
Though the fire was doused within 15 minutes, the files stored in racks nearby were gutted. The incident triggered strong reactions from opposition parties, who claimed that the fire outbreak was staged to sabotage the ongoing probe into the gold smuggling case.