Fire fighters try to douse the blaze at the irrigation department office in Patna on Monday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, March 21: The top floor of the irrigation department building in Old Secretariat caught fire around 12noon today.

Thousands of files and documents turned into ashes after the fire broke out.

It took two fire fighters and more than one hour to douse the fire.

Officials of the department said that the damaged files were “not important”. However, sources in the department said a few documents that were lost in the fire were important. The sources added many data were lost as they had not been stored in the computer for a record.

The sources said space constrains had forced the officials to keep many files and other documents on the terrace.

Sanjay Singh, an eyewitness, said: “When I heard that the building has caught fire, I rushed to the terrace. My office is on the first floor. It took the fire fighters more than half-an-hour to reach the spot. Within a few minutes, everything had turned into ashes.”

Asked what was kept on the terrace, Singh said: “I do not know exactly what documents were there. But many files were seen. Many furniture were also destroyed in the fire.”

Hari Narayan, chief engineer monitoring department, said: “The fire must have started from cigarette or beedi. There are several labourers working in the department who keep roaming about in the building. But there is no need to worry. Most of the files and documents that have been lost were of no use. They were more like garbage.”

He, however, said a probe would be conducted into the case. “The department has given an order to probe the cause of fire. The matter will be investigated and we would ensure such a thing does no happen again on the premises,” Narayan said.

The principle secretary of the department, Anil Kumar Sharma, refused to comment on the matter. Another official, Mohammad Sohail, refused to divulge the extent of damage.

The public relations officer of the department, Subchandra Jha, said the fire was a result of a short circuit. “The fire broke out after a short circuit. No harm has been done to any of the important documents. The files that have been lost were old and useless,” Jha said adding nobody had been injured in the incident.