Kochi: A fire incident at the grievance counter in Oachira Gram Panchayat office resulted in the destruction of numerous files and a computer. Preliminary investigations point towards a suspected short circuit as the likely cause of the accident.

A local who noticed the fire in the building around 6 AM on Friday morning, immediately alerted the panchayat officials. Combined efforts of locals and the officials helped in bringing down the fire, even before a fireforce unit from Karunagappally arrived. 

Panchayat president B Sreedevi informed that important documents were not lost in the accident. “Since most of the files are stored in the computer database, it is easy to retrieve them,” she said.

A probe has been ordered into the incident. Officials of the electrical inspectorate and forensic department will arrive at the site for inspection.