LABUAN: A four-decade-old wooden office of Labuan Shipyard Engineering Sdn Bhd (LSE) was razed in a fire on Christmas day (Dec 25).

The wooden office which was built in 1974, housed several departments, including the finance and administration departments, as well as the chief executive officer's (CEO) office.

Labuan Fire and Rescue Department director Ismaidi Ismail told Bernama the fire had reportedly started at about 7 pm, with the cause of the fire still under investigation.

"We received a distress call at about 7.33 pm and our firemen with three engines from our headquarters at the Rancha-Rancha Fire Station rushed to the scene, and found that the office was already engulfed in fire.

Ismaidi said, however, there were no reports of injuries or casualties in the incident, and firemen managed to douse the fire in over an hour.

"The fire damaged about almost 100 per cent of the wooden structure, whereby files, computers and office equipment were also destroyed," he said.

According to one of the workers who saw smoke emitting from the office?, the incident was very unexpected, as no staff were working in the office at the time.

"There is nothing we could do as the fire started from inside the office, and the fire destroyed the finance department and the CEO's office," he said.

-- BERNAMA