Madhya Pradesh: Horrible fire broke out in Satpura Bhavan, how did the fire start? Steps taken to control and the flames of politics rising with fire

A massive fire broke out at Satpura Bhavan in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, yesterday afternoon. This building located in the capital is one of the important buildings of the government, where offices of many important departments, including the health department, operate. In this way, this whole building is very important from the government point of view, obviously this building will also be equipped with means of fire prevention. In such a situation, the question arises that how did such a VIP building get caught in the fire? Initial investigation revealed that the fire broke out after a blast in the AC. (Satpura Bhavan Agnikand June 2023) However, the government constituted will investigate the entire matter in detail and present its report. So let’s take a point-wise look at the whole incident of arson and the efforts made to stop the fire, as well as the politics and rhetoric of the leaders that started this arson simultaneously.

When and how did the fire start?
According to information received from eyewitnesses, on June 12 at 3:30 pm, a fire broke out in the TDP branch of Tribal on the third floor of Satpura Bhavan. Where there is a fire, there are files of budget, hostel and proposals.

Later in the afternoon i.e. around 5:20 pm, the fourth floor also caught fire in no time. In this floor of the building there are documents related to Chief Minister’s Assistance, Public Grievance, Family Welfare, Chief Minister’s Monitoring.

About two hours after the incident of arson, till about 6:50 pm, the fire spread completely in the fifth floor as well. Thankfully this floor was vacant, there were no official documents here, but after renovation, new furniture was installed here, the estimated cost of which was between 12 to 24 crores. All these furniture got burnt to ashes in the fire. By the time the fire spread to this floor, there had been blasts in about a dozen AC compressors, which were continuously working to inflame the fire.

About six hours had passed since the incident of fire. But meanwhile, at 9 pm, flames started rising from the sixth floor as well. In this sixth floor of the building, there was a record room of the health department, it is expected that there will be about 13-14 thousand important files here. These too were destroyed by fire. Another important information was also found that the director-administrator sits on this floor of the building.

When did the fire extinguishing exercise start?
The fire started at 3:30 in the building. Just after half an hour i.e. at 4 o’clock the first fire engine also reached the spot. The fire brigade personnel started trying to reach the affected floors of the building without delay. About two hours after the start of the rescue, 4-5 fire engines were present on the spot. Given the magnitude of the fire, this proved insufficient so more than 30 vehicles from all the surrounding districts were called to the spot.

The fire had taken a severe form and was spreading to the other floors as well. (Satpura Bhavan Agnikand June 2023) In view of the seriousness of the arson, talks were held with the army at 7 o’clock. An hour later, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke to Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and gave them the report of the entire rescue operation along with the incident of fire. Six hours after the incident of arson, now the army team also reached the spot and then the efforts to extinguish the fire started on a war footing.

Controlling the fire Local administration, police personnel, fire brigade personnel, CISF and other fire fighters were engaged in controlling the fire with the help of machines but till 11 o’clock there was no news of any relief. At about 12 o’clock a reduction in the flames was observed and then after an overnight operation the fire was completely brought under control at 6 o’clock in the morning.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh has formed a committee to find out the preliminary cause of the fire. The committee includes Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Home Rajesh Rajoura, Principal Secretary (PS) Urban Neeraj Mandloi, Principal Secretary (PS) PWD (Public Works Department) Sukhbir Singh and Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Fire. After finding out the preliminary reasons for the investigation, the committee will submit its report to Chief Minister Chouhan.

भोपाल: मध्य प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री शिवराज सिंह चौहान ने सतपुड़ा भवन अग्निकांड पर अधिकारियों के साथ बैठक की। https://t.co/4s8A2Foidu pic.twitter.com/6MedTiuXrd

— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) June 13, 2023

How much damage due to fire
It is being told that in this fierce fire in the six-storey building, about 80 percent of the four floors have been burnt. About 12,000 files kept in all the four floors are said to have been burnt in this fire.

Investigation into the cause of the fire
After the fire was brought under control, an attempt was made to find out its initial causes. It was found that the fire safety system of the building had no role in preventing the incident of arson. Not only this, but the fire audit of the building was also not done for the last four years.

After the fire broke out, the firefighters on the spot continued to extinguish the fire at their level. Seeing the fire getting out of control, hydraulic machine was also called but it did not open and proved to be useless. Apart from this, it was also observed that there was considerable delay in calling the fire tenders from the surrounding districts to the spot. Thus the whole incident was not taken seriously. Neither the superintendent nor the administrator of Satpura Bhavan showed any role in extinguishing the fire. (Satpura Bhavan Agnikang June 2023) Despite this, three IAS officers have offices in this building where they themselves are also present.

Apart from this, the root cause of the fire i.e. the explosion in the AC compressor was also not taken seriously, after which about a dozen AC compressors exploded and the flames became frightening.

A major reason for the fire spreading to different floors was the wood present there. Renovation work was going on in most parts of the building, due to which a large amount of old furniture wood was kept there in the fifth floor. The fire in these woods took a huge form.

Political flames started rising after the fire
It has often been seen that fire incidents in government offices become common as elections approach. The surprising thing is that exactly 11 years ago, on June 25, 2012, there was a fire here. The health scam had come to the fore in the state 5 years before this incident. Action was taken on the director in this matter. The state assembly elections were held exactly one year after the incident of arson.

Satpura Bhawan came under fire once again on 4 December 2018. Then the Congress had alleged that their government was about to come, so this arson was carried out. After this incident, when the results came, Kamal Nath became the Chief Minister.

Now on June 12, 2023, again a big arson took place in this building, this time also the building is the same Satpura Bhawan, basically the building with health and tribal branches. Just a few days ago, KK Mishra of Congress had expressed the apprehension of fire.

Jitu Patwari wrote on his Twitter handle “This is our Directorate of Health. It operates from the Satpura Bhawan of state capital Bhopal. Today it caught fire again. He further wrote that “Chief Minister Chouhan, my direct question is whether the fire has started or has been set? Because it is generally believed that the government does such an ‘action’ to destroy the evidence before the elections! The losing BJP should also tell who were the culprits in the old ‘agni kand’? Who got/how much punishment? After this, in a series of tweets, he bombarded the state government with allegations.

यह है हमारा स्‍वास्‍थ्‍य संचालनालय. राजधानी भोपाल के सतपुड़ा भवन से इसका संचालन होता है! आज इसमें फिर आग लग गई!@ChouhanShivraj जी,
मेरा सीधा सवाल है – यह आग लगी है या लगाई गई है? क्योंकि आमतौर पर माना जाता है कि चुनाव के पहले सबूत मिटाने के लिए सरकार ऐसी 'हरकत' करती है! हार रही… https://t.co/hSb6YNnzWL pic.twitter.com/UK7iCC3Rvh

— Jitendra (Jitu) Patwari (@jitupatwari) June 12, 2023

Former state president Arun Yadav tweeted that Priyanka Gandhi had attacked the scams in Jabalpur. After which fire broke out in Satpura building. Due to which many important files have been burnt to ashes. Is this not a conspiracy to burn the files of scams? This fire is indicating a change in MP.

यह मध्यप्रदेश में व्याप्त भ्रष्टाचार की लपटें है जो 5 घण्टे के बाद भी उठ रही है, आदिम जाति विभाग, स्वास्थ्य विभाग, लोकनिर्माण विभाग, पिछड़ा वर्ग विभाग, EOW, लोकायुक्त जैसे महत्वपूर्ण विभागों के भ्रष्टाचार की फाइलें जलकर नहीं जलाकर खाक कर दी है ।#विजय_शंखनाद_मध्यप्रदेश pic.twitter.com/MOdYMg5Emp

— Arun Subhashchandra Yadav (@MPArunYadav) June 12, 2023

The statement of Congress MLA Kunal Chowdhary has also come to the fore on this fire. He said that whenever elections come, there is a fire. A similar fire had taken place before 2018 as well. The fire has started again before the upcoming assembly elections. There is going to be a change of government in Madhya Pradesh.

https://twitter.com/KunalChoudhary_/status/1668282825790066689?s=20