The Enforcement Directorate (ED) office housed in the Kaiser Hind building located in Ballard Easte, Fort engulfed in massive fire on Sunday, damaging several papers and computer systems. The blaze that erupted in the wee hours at 2.30 am, escalated to Level III due to the wooden interiors and excessive paper files stored at the fourth and the attic floor of the grand old building, the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) said.
Also MFB said that fire was confined to several files and computers, ED officials maintained that they have digital copies of all documents, thus no documents of official cases are lost or any issues related to the documents have arisen.
Major fire breaks out at ED office in Ballard Estate, South Mumbai; no injuries reported. | FPJ/Vijay Gohil
Major fire breaks out at ED office in Ballard Estate, South Mumbai; no injuries reported. | FPJ/Vijay Gohil
The incident was reported to the MFB at 2.31 am and it was declared as level III fire at 4.17 am. Twelve fire engines, seven jumbo water tankers were rushed to the spot, and 13 fire officers with several fire fighters were deployed involved in the fire fighting operations. After almost 12 hours of the intense fire fight, the blaze was extinguished in the afternoon and cooling operations underwent till Sunday late evening.
Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Ravindra Ambulgekar said that there is a possibility that the building is a heritage property. "The wooden furniture, attic floor staircase and several materials stocked in the common passage and the balcony, obstructed the fire fighters. Additionally, as the fire was confined to the wooden furniture and papers, it emitted excessive smoke, making it challenging to the fire fighters enter the floor."
Major fire breaks out at ED office in Ballard Estate, South Mumbai; no injuries reported. | FPJ/Vijay Gohil
Major fire breaks out at ED office in Ballard Estate, South Mumbai; no injuries reported. | FPJ/Vijay Gohil
The CFO said that prilimary the are no signs of sabotage, and the fire investigation will start from Monday when the exact cause of the fire will be identified. However, ED officials suspect that fire broke out due to a short circuit. They added that several officials' cabins and desks were damaged.
The ED officials also mentioned that due to the fire, several officers will operate their official duties from Janmabhoomi Chambers, located at Ballard Pier. While a few senior officials will operate from the ED Zone 2 office in Worli.
