Hyderabad: Major fire breaks out at Telangana Forensic Science Laboratory in Red Hills

A major fire broke out at the Telangana Forensic Science Laboratory in Red Hills on Saturday morning. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot after police alerted authorities. Traffic was diverted as firefighters worked to bring the blaze under control.

Hyderabad: A major fire broke out at the Forensic Science Laboratory Telangana, located at Nampally on Saturday morning. According to the officials, the fire department received a call at 10.21 am about a fire at the forensic science laboratory.

Immediately, the fire tender from the Assembly fire station was rushed to the spot and fire tenders and personnel from different fire stations arrived.

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“Initially,the fire fighters could not enter the first floor of the building due to heavy smoke. Later wearing Self Control Breathing Apparatus, the men managed to enter the building and started the operations,” said a local fire fighter.

The staff at the laboratory in the beginning asked the fire fighters to douse the fire with the help of fire extinguishers available in the building. This suggestion was made keeping in mind the computers located in the room. When the attempts for put off the fire using extinguishers failed, the fire fighters pumped in water to control the fire. The fire in the meantime spread to three to four rooms on the first floor of the building.

Reports suggest that several computers, hard disks, documents pertaining to several cases and other articles were gutted down in the fire. “We suspect the fire started due to a short circuit in the room. At this stage we cannot say about the equipment damaged in the fire,” said DCP (Khairatabad) K Shilpavalli.

A senior official of the fire department said that the fire personnel said the fire was brought under control within three hours in the building. “Smoke extractors to draw smoke out of the building. The fire was brought under control promptly due to swift action,” said the fire official.

The forensic science laboratory officials are tight lipped about the damage to the equipment and material that could play a crucial role in ensuring convictions in high profile cases.