The office of the Advocate General, Uttar Pradesh is located in the nine-storey Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Bhawan, located right in front of the High Court in Civil Lines. At around 5.30 am, a passerby Deepak Dubey, passing near the High Court, saw smoke coming out of the building and informed the guard. The guard gave information on number 100 along with an employee of the office, on which the fire brigade reached. When firemen reached inside, it was found that the fire started on the sixth floor. They tried to go there but could not proceed due to the smoke.
After this, fire tenders of Army, Air Force and NTPC were also called along with fire brigade. Each of which required dozens of rounds. After a lot of effort, the fire was completely brought under control around 7 o’clock in the evening. But by then about one lakh files kept here had been burnt to ashes. All the officers including DG Fire Service Avinash Chandra, ADG Prem Prakash, IG Dr. Rakesh Singh were present on the occasion.
Senior Superintendent of Police Prayagraj in connection with the incident of fire in Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Building of Hon’ble High Court Allahabad under Police Station Civil Lines @ShaileshP_IPS Byte given by:-@Uppolice @ADGZonPrayagraj @igrangealld @DM_PRAYAGRAJ pic.twitter.com/K6ANLLOGDg
— PRAYAGRAJ POLICE (@prayagraj_pol) July 17, 2022
The files in these sections were burnt
Files of several important sections were burnt in the fire that broke out in the Advocate General’s office. These include Contempt, Bail, Criminal Appeal, Criminal Revision and Civil Section. In fact, there are offices and officers’ chambers up to the bottom five floors. After this, the sixth to eighth floors are used as record rooms. In one part of the ninth floor, some files were kept in the conference room as well as in other places.
CM constitutes a five-member committee for investigation
On the other hand, taking this matter very seriously, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has constituted a five-member committee and ordered an inquiry. In this, SP City, ADM City, Chief Fire Officer, Additional LR Prayagraj and Deputy Director Electrical Safety have been included. The committee has been directed to investigate the cause of fire under the guidance of DM and SSP and send a report. So that after fixing the responsibility, action can be taken against the guilty.
The building of the Advocate General’s office has also suffered a lot due to being engulfed in flames for hours. The situation was that the roofs from the sixth to the ninth floor got stuck in many places. Also there were cracks on the walls. Furniture worth lakhs of rupees kept here also got burnt to ashes. The situation was that even after the fire was extinguished, the walls continued to blaze. It is being said that there has been a loss of crores in the incident.
No casualties have occurred. Some firemen suffered hand injuries while breaking the glass panes for ventilation, on which they have been sent to the hospital for treatment. How the fire started is being investigated. – Dr. Rajeev Pandey, CFO
