Health officials sift through files and furniture gutted in a fire at the new secretariat's health department section on Tuesday morning. A short circuit triggered the fire on the building's third floor around 9.15am. Few employees who were at work by then spotted the smoke and alerted the fire department. Four fire tenders reached the spot around 10am and it took an hour to douse the flames. By the time the flames were extinguished, officials found old files and furniture had been destroyed. Health minister Tej Pratap said no important file was destroyed in the fire. The department even issued a release around 1pm, stating: "In today's fire, only waste papers were damaged. Not a single file of the department, which concerns the functioning of the department, has been gutted." Later in the evening, principal secretary R.K. Mahajan said: "According to information available with me, some files regarding recruitment of auxiliary nurse and midwives and general nursing midwifery were gutted in the fire. I don't know if any other important file was destroyed or not. I have formed a three-member committee to probe the reasons behind the fire and find out if any other important file was destroyed. The committee has been given three days to submit its report." Text by Shuchismita Chakraborty, picture by Jai Prakash