Fire in Parliament doused

An alert employee of Parliament yesterday averted a fire that could have caused extensive damage to the Chamber of the House. 

Noticing smoke coming from a high-voltage wall lamp above the last rows of the parliamentarians’ benches, the employee alerted others. 

The Police promptly removed all local and foreign visitors from the public gallery, including a group of schoolchildren who were in the public gallery at the time, sources said.

Upon investigating the cause of the fire, it was found that one of the students had dropped her handkerchief, which fell on the lamp and later caught fire, sources said. 

An employee who climbed down from the gallery using a flagstaff fixed near the gallery was able to remove the material and extinguish the fire.