Some P 1 million worth of public documents and property went up in smoke when the fourth floor of the National Statistics Office (NSO) located in Sta. Mesa, Manila was gutted down by a two-hour long fire at dawn today.

Senior Fire Officer 2 (SFO2) Wilson Tana, arson investigator of the Manila Fire Department said the fire started at 2:59 am at the fourth floor of the Soledad Building located at De Dios St., Sta. Mesa.

The building security guard on duty said the fire started from the mid-portion of the fourth floor and spread quickly. The fire reached the 5th alarm at 3:19 am before firefighters could put the blaze under control.

Tana said the guard on duty narrated that, before the fire, linemen of the Manila Electric Company were on hand to fully restore power in the area when another blackout occurred.

When the power resumed, thick black smoke came out from the offices, particularly the cash division and National Capital Region (NCR)-1 operations division.

Tana surmised that a power surge might have ignited the fire.

Employees of the NSO said important public documents like birth certificates unfortunately were among those gobbled up by the blaze.

No injuries or casualties were reported.