A fire broke out on the third floor of a communications and IT laboratory, belonging to the central government, in Salt Lake's Sector V around noon on Wednesday. The 100-odd employees were evacuated safely and the fire was doused in 90 minutes. Sixteen fire tenders, including a skylift, reached the site but most of them returned unused. A fire officer said a short circuit in an AC unit might have triggered the fire. "The basic firefighting preparedness was in place. When we reached the spot, there was a lot of smoke in the corridors and staircases. We used the skylift to reach the third floor from outside and broke portions of the glass façade to let the smoke out, after which our men entered the room and doused the flames," he said. The fire broke out in a laboratory that is no longer in use, an employee of the Electronics Regional Test Laboratory claimed. "The room is used to store discarded equipment. When the fire broke out, there was no one in that section of the building. Employees in the technical-cum-administrative wing, on another section on the third floor, got to know of the fire when the smoke spread there," he said. The laboratory in DN Block, about 100m from College More in Sector V, comes under the ministry of communications and IT. (Left) Employees outside the Electronics Regional Test Laboratory while the firefighting is on. Picture by Mayukh Sengupta