A fire broke out in the Allahabad Bank building on India Exchange Place Road in Dalhousie on Tuesday morning.

No one was injured but two rooms of the cheque clearing department were gutted.

The fire on the first floor of the five-storeyed building was spotted around 8.30am when there were only a handful of employees and guards. The ground floor houses the bank's main branch.

Ten fire tenders took more than one-and-a-half hours to douse the flames.

A fire officer said firemen had to break the windowpanes to free the trapped smoke before they could enter the rooms.

The main branch had to be shut because of the fire and bank authorities put up a notice asking customers to visit other branches nearby.

"We have asked all our customers to visit the Stephen House branch or the SME branch near Raj Bhavan," H.S. Ahluwalia, assistant general manager of the main branch, said. "We have strengthened these two branches and all customers of the main branch will receive services there."

T.L. Sudhinder, zonal head of Allahabad Bank, said the building had the bank's depository.

The second floor houses the bank's server too. "But the server hasn't been affected. Moreover, we have a backup server, so all branches will run normally," Ahluwalia said.

The fire spread rapidly because of wooden flooring, the fire officer said. "Fire grows eight times faster in a minute in the presence of combustible material. Here, the false ceiling and floor were made of wood."

The building had some fire fighting equipment but most employees ran out in fear, he said. "The building has smoke alarms but no sprinklers. It seems some people tried to douse the flames by charging fire extinguishers."

A bank employee said at least 250 people worked in the building. He said the alarm had gone off when the fire broke out.

A panel board was installed on the ground floor to show where the fire broke out, a fireman said.

"Police told us that a forensic team would visit the office on Wednesday morning. The building will remain sealed till then," a bank official said.

"We will take a final call on Wednesday morning based on what the police and the fire brigade say."

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, a fire officer said.

Traffic was disrupted in the area for about an hour as vehicles had to move along India Exchange Place Road in a single file.

The road is mostly used by buses and other vehicles headed towards Central Avenue, Sealdah or further east from Dalhousie.