Rediff.com's Prasanna Zore reports that the huge fire that has engulfed the fourth floor at the Maharashtra's state secretariat seems to have begun at around 1.50 pm, according to Anil Joshi, under secretary in Mantralaya's general administration department.

Joshi, who works on the 7th floor, was informed of the fire on his cell phone. he says more than 95 per cent of the employees have been evacuated, but saw a  number of people stranded on the 4th, 5th and 6th floor of the building.

Joshi said he and other employees of his department ran down the stairs to safety, but faced breathing problems as they ran down the staircase because of the thick smoke.

He said there were adequate fire fighting systems employed on all the floors of the state secretariat and a number of people have been trained to handle fire-fighting equipment.