A portion of the office of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), located on the third floor of the Exchange building at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, was gutted on Wednesday morning, as a massive fire broke out in the building of the British era.
While there were no casualties, files, office records and some wooden furniture were reduced to ashes. The Exchange Building houses several Central Government offices including the NCB, Commerce Ministry’s Salt department, Census Operations office and some Pay and Accounts offices.
The fire broke out around 11.10 am and was extinguished by 1 pm. The fire broke out at the third floor, housing among other establishments the office of NCB. Firefighters had a tough time in combating the blaze.
Twelve fire tenders, half-a-dozen water tankers, ambulances and a snorkel were rushed to the sport for the fire-fighting operations.
The exact cause of the fire has not yet been established. However, preliminary investigations have revealed that a short-circuit might have led to the mishap. A fire brigade official said that the NCB office bore the maximum brunt in the fire, as the files, computers and other hardware were gutted in the blaze.