Fire erupted at the office room of St Philomena’s PU College on Mysore-Bangalore road in the city on Wednesday, damaging important documents of the institute. Fortunately, no casualties were reported.
The office room at the first floor of the building that dates back to the year 1946, had almost turned black, when the principal Rev Fr M Vincent noticed smoke billowing out from the ventilator above the door, around 8.10 am.
Fire fighters from the neighbouring fire station in Bannimantap were summoned and took one-and-a-half hour to douse the fire. According to preliminary investigation, short circuit is suspected to be the cause of fire.
It may have erupted in midnight hours itself and came to notice only in the morning. Barring those documents made safe in almirahs, those outside in the room was burnt in the incident.
Fr Lesli Moraes, principal of degree college told Deccan Herald, Fr M Vincent could notice the soot on the ceiling when he came with the question papers for the ongoing annual exams for first PUC.
While the whole of office room, from reception counter to others were totally gutted, principal’s chamber adjacent to the office room remained intact. Computer laboratory is beside the principal’s chamber, and fortunately, the fire didn’t spread to other parts of the building, Lesli Moraes heaved a sigh of relief.
Exams on schedule
The exams began as per the schedule at 9 am, even as the anxious staffers and workers were busy sifting things among the remnants.
DCP (law and order) Basavaraj Malagathi, ACP (NR sub-division) C D Jagadish, inspector Dhananjaya visited the spot. A complaint has been lodged with N R Police.