A fire broke out in the subdivisional officer’s (SDO) office at Hill Cart Road in Siliguri on Wednesday night, prompting the Darjeeling district administration to clarify that documents and other items related to the special intensive revision of the voter list were not affected by the blaze.

Two fire tenders rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control before it could spread to nearby areas.

According to sources in the state fire and emergency services department, local people noticed black smoke billowing from one of the floors of the SDO office building around 10.30pm and alerted the authorities.

Firefighters arrived at the scene soon after and extinguished the flames within 10 minutes.

“The fire originated from a room on the second floor of the building. We doused it in a short time,” said an official of the fire department.

As the blaze broke out at a time when the SIR was in progress, the Darjeeling district administration issued an official statement on Thursday to reaffirm that the documents and other items related to the drive were intact.

“A minor fire incident occurred in a section of the Siliguri SDO office late last night (January 7) and was promptly controlled by the fire services. The rooms affected did not house any SIR-related electoral records. All SIR data is digitised and remains completely safe. There has been no impact on the SIR process. An assessment of routine office damage is underway,” read the statement issued by the district magistrate’s office.

Later on Thursday, Shankar Ghosh, the BJP MLA of Siliguri, visited the SDO’s office and demanded a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire.

“The SDO office preserves many important documents, especially when the SIR process is underway. We apprehend that there could be an element of sabotage aimed at disrupting the electoral review. The state government must conduct a detailed inquiry to determine how this incident occurred,” Ghosh said.

Officials of the district administration said an inquiry had been initiated to determine the cause of the blaze and reiterated that all critical records remained secure.