Chennai, Nov 1 (IANS): A fire broke out in the Tamil Nadu government printing press here in the early hours of Friday. The heritage building housing the press and the printing equipment worth several crore of rupees were damaged, said a fire service personnel.

"The fire was noticed around 2 a.m. today (Friday). Immediately fire tenders were rushed to the spot. As it is a printing press storing papers, the fire spread fast, damaging around 15,000 sq.ft building, equipments and the stock," a senior fire service official told IANS, preferring anonymity.

"It is a heritage building built during the British period. Such buildings should have fire safety equipments like smoke detectors, water sprinklers," he added.

He said the building is collapsing inside due to intense heat and fire service personnel are taking care by not hitting their water jets on the walls.

According to him, nobody was injured in the fire as it broke very early morning.

Ten fire tenders and several water tankers were rushed to douse the raging fire which was brought under control.

Senior officials of the fire department visited the site.

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