Short circuit causes minor fire at RTO

Panic spread in the non-transport section of the Regional Transport Office near Sangam Bridge when a minor fire broke out on Saturday. Though no casualty was reported, the fire incident has once again highlighted the need for government offices to have proper firefighting equipment.

After the Mantralaya fire incident, DNA had carried a report ‘No audit at major government offices in 10 years’ (June 23, 2012) mentioning the possibility of fire at Pune RTO due to the unorganised status of the office.

Later, the regional transport officer had ordered his staff to clean up the office and thus no files were damaged in the fire on Saturday.

The fire broke out around noon when one of the electric wires caught fire. Two fire tenders were sent to the spot after one of the staffers called the fire brigade. Vijay Bhilare, fire officer of Rajgurunagar fire station said, “There was a 10-feet long wire of an inverter system which caught fire after a short circuit.

Fortunately, one of the RTO staffers switched off the main switch and hence, the fire could not spread in the office. Since it was a government office, we thought that there might be visitors there and accordingly sent two fire engines as a precautionary measure. Fortunately, the fire was not big and we could control it immediately.” DNA tried to contact Pune regional transport officer Arun Yeola but he was not available for comments.