A fire broke out on the first floor of Mahindra Home Finance office in Tiruvannamalai on Saturday. There were no casualties. The firefighters battled for more than an hour to put out the blaze, which the police said might have been caused by an electric short circuit. “The UPS booster in a separate room in the office blasted, resulting in the fire in a portion of the building,” said D. Kamal Basha, Station Fire Officer (SFO), Tiruvannamalai Out Post (OP). Around 9.15 a.m. on Saturday, a few staff members at the office saw smoke emanating from the booster room on the first floor of the building, located near the market, and alerted the local fire office, which rushed fire tenders to the spot. With the fire restricted to the first floor of the building, which also has a public sector bank on its ground floor, one fire tender was deployed from the Tiruvannamalai town area. The fire was prevented from spreading to the neighbouring buildings.
Police said that at the time of the accident, no one was in the office. Record books and other things in the office were gutted. Residents of the area complained of breathlessness because of the thick smoke. A case has been registered by the Tiruvannamalai Town police.
