Hyderabad: Rat Held Responsible For Starting Office Fire That Led To Damages Worth Rs 1 Crore

Hyderabad: Rat Held Responsible For Starting Office Fire That Led To Damages Worth Rs 1 Crore

Freak accidents can be extremely dangerous since you never know when they are coming. More recently, fire caused by the actions of a rat resulted in the loss of property worth over Rs 1 crore at an automobile showroom in Hyderabad’s Musheerabad.

According to TOI, forensic experts investigated the incident that took place on February 8 this year. They tested the burnt material and examined the wiring and found out that there was neither any inflammable material nor a short circuit which could have started the fire.

Then, the team went back to check the CCTV footage of the day the fire took place found something bizarre: A rat had caused the fire.

The rat’s doings left the entire first floor of the eastern section of the building charred and there were also some damages on the ground floor due to the heat and soot. Three vehicles in the premises also faced damages due to the incident.

“Our team inspected the site and collected relevant physical evidence…Analysis did not reveal presence of hydrocarbons thereby ruling out possibility of ignition and initiation of fire due to use of extraneously induced ignitable liquid residues”, Dr KPC Gandhi, founder of Truth Labs who were investigating the incident, told TOI.

While the team was examining the CCTV footage, they discovered that a rat had entered the customer service room around midnight.

“It brought some burning material in its mouth and dropped it on the chair. Within seconds, the chair started burning and soon gated to other furniture…It was found that every Friday, employees would hold a puja in the room and a picture of deity was present in the corner. There, a big diya would be lit…Due to no wind blowing in the room, the diya remained lit all night and the rat dragged the burning wick and dropped it on the chair,” Gandhi said.