A fire broke out this week at a police data center in Jharkhand, India.

Local press, including the Times of India and others, report that a fire broke out at the Jharkhand Police headquarters in Dhurwa, Ranchi, on Tuesday (16 September) morning.

The fire started in the development room of the police's data center around 5 am local time. Two fire vehicles attended the incident and brought the blaze under control after several hours.

The incident reportedly caused damage to hard-copy records, computers, air-conditioning, furniture, and other equipment – but didn’t impact critical services. As many as 40 pieces of IT hardware and 10 air units have been damaged due to the fire, according to local officials.

An investigation is underway, but a short circuit is thought to be the cause.

The room housed the Jharkhand Police's CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems), in-house software team, and the HRMS (HR Management System) of the special branch.

In a press statement, state police headquarters said: "The fire broke out due to a short circuit at around 5 am. Due to active efforts by the employees present on the premises, all important machines and equipment were saved."

Jharkhand Police’s website is down at time of writing.

Another government data center in India, in Kolkata, suffered a fire in June.

2025 has seen fires of various severity break out at facilities in Singapore, Oregon, Virginia, Brazil, and Egypt.