A fire broke out on the premises of a public sector bank located on Madurai-Virudhunagar Road on Saturday.

Being a holiday (fourth Saturday), employees of the bank were not present and the premises wore a deserted look. Some passers-by spotted smoke billowing from the top floor of the building and immediately alerted the fire and police departments.

As a fire station was nearby, fire tenders rushed to the spot. Meanwhile, the flames had spread to other floors, and two more fire tenders from neighbouring stations were pressed into service. The police cordoned off the area.

After about an hour, the blaze was brought under control, a fire officer, who was supervising the operation, said.

A probe into the cause of the fire would be conducted. “The exact loss cannot be ascertained. But in the process of putting out the fire, many documents were destroyed. There was heavy smoke too from the top floor,” he added.

Virudhunagar West Police have registered a case and are investigating.