Jammu, Dec 30 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir administration has ordered an inquiry into a recent fire incident at the Civil Secretariat here and called for fixing of responsibility for failure in activating response at various levels to control the blaze in a timely manner.

Principal Secretary, Estates Department, was appointed as the inquiry officer to probe the fire at the Civil Secretariat on December 28, an order issued by Secretary General Administration Department (GAD) Piyush Singla said.

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The fire was reported from the retiring room of the vice chairperson of the Khadi and Village Industries Board Hina Shafi Bhat. The fire in the room at the top floor of the multi-storey building was controlled within 20 minutes by the fire and emergency services department.

The inquiry officer was asked to submit his report to the GAD within seven days, clearly establishing among others the cause of the fire and delay in controlling and extinguishing the fire.

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"The inquiry officer shall fix the responsibility for failure in activating response at various levels to control the fire in a timely manner," the order said.

"He will also see whether the fire safety audit of the building had been carried out, as ordered by the government on May 21 or not and whether the fire extinguishing equipment available on the premises was in working condition," it added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)