This Article is From May 13, 2009

Fire breaks out in Paswan's Delhi house

New Delhi: Fire broke out in the residence of LJP chief and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan in New Delhi on Wednesday, completely gutting the drawing room, but no one was injured.

Paswan, who returned from Bihar two days ago after hectic campaigning, and his wife were in an adjacent room when the drawing room caught fire at around 12 pm.

The Minister and his family were alerted by his aides and all of them came out of 12-Janpath house, neighbouring Congress president Sonia Gandhi's residence.

Two fire tenders were rushed to the spot, which doused the fire in about 30 minutes. A short-circuit in the air-conditioner in the room is suspected to have caused the blaze, fire brigade officials said.

Two almirahs, two sofa sets, chairs and a number of antiques, including statues of Buddha, Jesus and B R Ambedkar, were damaged in the incident.

"I was watching TV when I was told that there is a fire in the next room. We all rushed out. We are lucky that the fire broke out during the day," Paswan said.

"This is the status of the maintenance of heritage buildings in Lutyen's Zone. There is no proper wiring. If this is happening to a minister, then you can guess what will be common man's plight," he said.

Paswan also said Sonia Gandhi telephoned him and enquired about the incident.
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