Patna, May 12 (IANS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inspected the fire-stricken Visvesvaraya Bhawan, where the Fire Department had failed to douse the blaze till Wednesday evening.

"I have never seen such a fire incident in the government building with the entire day gone by and fire fighters failing to control it," he said.

"I was informed about the incident in the morning, that fire broke out in the building. Then we leant in the afternoon that the fire operation is still continuing. The officials of all departments are working hard to douse the flame."

The fire broke out in one section of the fifth floor of the building at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. Due to the alleged slow response operation of the Fire Department, it spread till the third floor.

The fire officials, however, blamed the district police for lack of coordination during the operation.

At one time, Director General, Home Guards, Shobha Ahotkar was angry at the police personnel present there for the failure to disperse the large crowd which assembled there in wake of the incident.

The Visvesvaraya Bhawan has a number of offices of the state government, including of the Public Health Engineering Department.

The fire officials claimed that the fire broke in one section of the building on the fifth floor where the maintenance was underway. It soon engulfed the fourth and third floor as well. The reason for the fire could be a short circuit, they said.