Fire scare at Accountant General’s office

The Accountant General’s office will resume processing government payments today despite a fire scare that affected the office late on Saturday evening.

In a statement issued by the office on Sunday, the fire alarm was caused by overheating of fluorescent tubes.

Read the statement, in part: “There was a strong smell of burning plastics and smoke as a result of overheating of three fluorescent light tubes in the corridor on the ground floor of the eastern wing of the building.

“The overheating of the fluorescent tubes had the potential to cause fire, however, due to the vigilance and precaution taken by the security officers on duty to notify senior management and other stakeholders like Escom, police and the [Lilongwe] City Council helped to manage the situation and prevent fire break-out. The area that was affected by this incident is a corridor leading to the computer laboratory which is used for training of Ifmis [the Integrated Financial Management Information System] users throughout government.”

The statement said servers have been switched on after a temporary shutdown on the night of the fire to allow for proper inspections.