Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton and scores of civil servants were forced to evacuate the Government Administration Building on Parliament Street yesterday after an electrical fire scare.

Smoke was seen billowing out of the Information Technology office in the building?s basement just before noon ? although the fire alarm system was not activated.

Fire trucks arrived on the scene two minutes after the emergency call was made, with firemen forced to trawl through the building asking unsuspecting civil servants to drop what they were doing and assemble outside.

Fire Service spokesman Lt. Dana Lovell last night revealed the fire was caused by the overheating of the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) which supports the building?s IT system.

The UPS, which is powered by two large batteries, was taken to be destroyed at Government?s Hazardous Waste Disposal Facility at Sally Port in Dockyard.

Speaking to outside Government offices, Mr. Horton expressed his concern at the alarm?s failure to sound, stressing he would be looking into the matter immediately to uncover the problem and ensure it never happened again.

?Fortunately this time it does not appear there was any significant danger,? he said.

?But it is worrying that smoke was seen coming out of the office and the building?s alarm system did not pick it up. I will personally be making enquiries about this as somebody may get hurt in future if the system is not working as it should.?