Fire breaks out in crime branch unit at Thane

A fire broke out in the Thane police crime branch unit 1 premises on Sunday. Though no casualties or injuries were reported, some official documents and records were damaged.

A fire broke out in the Thane police crime branch unit 1 premises on Sunday. Though no casualties or injuries were reported, some official documents and records were damaged.

The fire broke out around 12:40pm and gutted the computer room, which contained the official records and documents. Two adjoining rooms were also damaged in the fire. The damages would add up to lakhs of rupees, said officials.

“The fire broke out because of a short circuit in the passage between the computer room and the office. The computer, printer, keyboard and some documents were destroyed. We are checking if information stored on the hard disk can be retrieved,” said senior police inspector Chandrakant Joshi of crime branch unit 1. The police said not many officers were present when the fire broke out. One of the officers saw smoke coming from the control room, the police added.

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Since the main switch was located in one of the two offices damaged in the fire, no one could go inside, the police said. Firemen from the Jawhar Baug fire brigade doused the fire in an hour.

Though the police claim that the fire broke out because of a short circuit, chief fire officer Arvind Mandke said: “We are yet to investigate the cause of fire.”