The fire at Writers’ Buildings on Thursday has given employees of the departments whose offices were damaged an unscheduled vacation that they intend to utilise in different ways.

“I am sitting for competitive exams and will spend the time sitting at home and studying,” said Pradip Chakraborty (name changed).

Pradip was one of the 300-odd employees of three departments who came to office on Friday, signed the attendance register and spent some time chatting with colleagues before returning home.

The 28-year-old, who has been a lower division assistant in the refugee relief and rehabilitation department since 2006, said he entered his soot-laced office once to collect his books, which had been kept in the upper drawer of his table. They were intact.

While Pradip has exams to prepare for, his senior colleague Tapati Saha plans to go shopping in her “free time”, which should be quite a bit. “I will come to office and sign the attendance register. After that, I will go New Market with my colleagues to shop for the Puja,” said the head assistant of the civic affairs department.

But senior officials of the affected departments in Block E, including fire services, said employees would have to report for duty. Fire services minister Pratim Chatterjee, too, said some rooms being damaged in the blaze should not be an excuse to stop work.

“Attendance is compulsory. Space is a problem but we’re trying to work out a way for these people to sit somewhere.”

Upal Roy, an employee of the fire services department, said making alternate arrangements wouldn’t be easy. “Even if I come, where will I sit? My department is gutted and there is no space at all in the fire licence department, where we have been asked to sit for some time.”

The fire services department has another office down the third-floor corridor but the space is not enough to accommodate extra people, Roy said.

The municipal affairs and refugee relief and rehabilitation departments face the same problem. “Files are falling off the tables. The passage between tables is enough for half a person. How will we sit here and work?” asked Sankhadeep Roy, head assistant of the refugee relief and rehabilitation department.

One of his colleagues in the municipal affairs department said: “We will come and loiter. It is not our fault (that the fire occurred).”