ISLAMABAD: A fire broke out on the third floor of Prime Minister Office on Monday but a timely response by the emergency and rescue staff and the city administration prevented it from spreading to other parts of the premises.

When the fire broke out Prime Minister Imran Khan was holding a meeting in his office on the fifth floor. He was informed about the incident and asked to leave the place immediately. How­ever, he wanted to know the intensity of the fire. On the insistence of his senior staff members and security officials, he left his office.

The whole building was evacuated and staff members were asked to leave the place promptly. No injury or serious damage to the furniture or official records inside the building was reported.

There was no official statement about the cause of the fire.

Adviser to the PM on Media Affairs Yousaf Baig Mirza later told reporters that an inquiry to ascertain the cause would soon be launched.

Emergency and Disaster Management Director Zafar Iqbal told Dawn that the fire had erupted in a duct carrying wires of telephone and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras inside a washroom on the third floor of the building at around 12:55pm.

He said the emergency and rescue staff stationed at PM Office responded quickly and they extinguished the fire within between 10 and 15 minutes following which a cooling process continued for an hour. Fire tenders of the Metropolitan Corporation Islam­abad (MCI) and Pakis­tan Navy also reached the spot.

Published in Dawn, April 09th, 2019