SHILLONG, JAN 18: A major tragedy was averted today when a fire at the data processing room of the North Treasury which was located at the ground floor of the 3rd Secretariat Building was quickly extinguished by personnel of Meghalaya Secretariat Home Guards.
The fire was first detected by Jeralina Lyngdoh, a cleaner at around 7:30 am in the morning. Lyngdoh who saw smoke coming out of the locked room, alerted the home guards personnel in the ground floor.
The MSHG personnel led by Naik Badal Das and Lance Naik Raj Kumar rushed to the room and broke open the lock to gain entry inside despite the flames and thick smoke that was billowing from the room.
While at the same time they contacted the Secretariat linesman to disconnect the electric line. The home guards personnel used buckets of water to douse the flames which had engulfed a wooden partition and reduced around two computer tables and chairs to ashes.
“The whole room was filled with thick black smoke. Fiery flames up to three feet high were eating the wooden partition in the room. Although the smoke was suffocating, my only thought was that the fire should be extinguished or else it will easily spread to the adjoining rooms of the building” said Uday Kumar, a homeguard jawan who had played an important role in dousing the fire.
Hendro Shabong, Sub Inspector, MSHG who was also involved in extinguishing the fire said that the fire was finally extinguished at around 8 am, after multiple buckets of water was thrown at the flames.
He said that the fire and emergency services was contacted and so also the police control room.
After the fire was extinguished, the main access point to the room was cordoned by the MSHG personnel to prevent entry by unauthorised persons. All assistance was provided to the police and treasury officials in their preliminary assessment and investigation.
By Our Reporter
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