The fire alarm went off this morning at the CB Hyde building in the St Martins area. It's the largest Government office in the city and employees had to be evacuated after an extraction fan on the third floor became overheated. It was a small electrical fire that took firefighters only minutes to put it out - but it caused quite a site. A senior government manager told us more:..

Kent Clare - Commissioner of Income Tax
"Maybe like about half hour ago we had a situation brought to our attention that there was an electrical fire upstairs at the 3rd floor - Elections and Boundaries Department. Standard procedure - we evacuate the building, call the fire department and they were able to identify what the problem was."

Reporter
"Is it one of the extractor fans that went bad?"

Kent Clare - Commissioner of Income Tax
"Yeah that what's they said that it was one of the extractor fans that are used to get the foul smell out of the bathroom. That just went out and basically overheated and caught fire. There was a lot of smoke but nit any kind of damage. It really hadn't gotten into a major fire, the fire department was able to come in and tape that up. We are now in the process in getting our electrician to certify that we can go back to business as normal before we undertake a more comprehensive addressing of the electrical needs of the building."

Reporter
"Will this that an electrical inspection will have to take place in preventing any future occurrence like this?"

Kent Clare - Commissioner of Income Tax
"Actually we had already done one. The Ministry of Finance had had us do this inspection some while ago. We also have to keep in mind that it's not just the question of the building but there are a lot of equipment in here; 5 governments in here - sensitive equipment and files. We had already done one and had identify that we need to do an upgrade and that will be forthcoming in the New Year. In the meantime we are able to operate as is. The fire began on the third floor of the Elections and Boundaries Department. After the fire was put out, an electrician was called in to do inspection on the area where the fire started."

Channel 7