Fire engulfs the transformer repair workshop in Katihar and (above) residents of the area help douse the flames. Pictures by Mohan Mahato

Katihar, Sept. 13: A transformer repair workshop on Women’s College road under Town police station caught fire late last night. Fire tenders took around four hours to douse the blaze.

When the fire tenders, which had arrived from Katihar, proved insufficient in controlling the flames, two other fire tenders had to be summoned from Purnea, around 40km from the place of incident. Apart from these, water and gas fire brigades, belonging to Indian Oil Corporation, reached the spot and finally took control of the situation.

However, Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel also reached the spot and helped control the blaze along with officials of other fire brigades. However, local residents played a major role by rushing forward and helping fire brigade personnel fight the flames at the transformer repair workshop.

The superintending engineer of Bihar State Electricity Board, Virendra Prasad, told The Telegraph: “The department incurred losses of more than Rs 1 crore though it is difficult to arrive at the exact figure so soon. A short circuit might have sparked off the fire.”

Prasad added: “When workers closed down the workshop, there was a power cut. When the supply was restored, the blaze in the building could be spotted. The fire might have started from small sparks during the power cut. Departmental enquiry is in progress to ascertain the losses incurred by the electricity department.”

An eyewitness to the blaze at the transformer repair workshop, Samrendra Kunal, said: “The transformer repair workshop at Katihar is a single workshop that serves four districts — Purnea, Kishanganj, Araria and Katihar. Just 200m away from the transformer repair workshop, there is an Indian Oil Corporation depot, which had caught fire last year. No precautionary measure has been taken so far.”

Kunal added: “Six fire tenders, five water fire brigades and a gas fire brigade were put to action to battle the blaze. In spite of that, they took more than four hours to contain the blaze because of the high intensity of the flames.”

Sources said property worth more than Rs 2 crore was lost in the fire. Electricity department officials are carrying out the estimate of losses suffered and the exact figure will come out soon. The blaze is being attributed to a short circuit but investigations are on to ascertain the actual cause.

District magistrate and collector Ashwini Datta Thakare told The Telegraph: “Departmental enquiry is on at the spot. Electricity officials are busy in assessing the losses incurred by the transformer repair workshop in the fire. It will be early to comment before the inquiry is completed.”