Fire broke out on the first floor of the West Bengal government secretariat – the Writers’ Building at Kolkata – in the early hours of Thursday, August 7, 2008. It took nearly two hours to douse the fire and in the meantime a number of key files and documents stored there got destructed. About 12 fire fighters were employed to douse the fire at the Writers Building in Kolkata.

Speaking about the incident, an official from the fire department said, 'The fire broke out at the municipal affairs, refugee rehabilitation and fire brigade departments in the E-block of Writer's Buildings first floor at around 6.30 a.m.' Though the reason behind the fire breakout is yet to be established, officials suspect that it could be due to a short circuit.