One year into the fire which burned down a building housing three government ministries beyond use, authorities have yet to provide any explanation for its cause.
Exactly a year ago today, on December 12, 2024, a fire broke out at a block of government buildings located in the Ameenee Magu of Male’ City at around 06:00am.  The two buildings housed the Housing Ministry, Infrastructure Ministry, which had been a separate government Ministry back then, Environment Ministry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and three sections of the Male’ City Council – including the Vital Registration Department.
The fire, which started in the building that housed the Housing Ministry, the Infrastructure Ministry, and a Malé City Council office, quickly grew out of control and spread to the nearby Green Building, where the Environment Ministry and the EPA were located.
Fire at building bloc housing government ministries and offices on December 12, 2024. Sun Photo/Mohamed Hamza)
The buildings were burned beyond use in the incident, disrupting the operations of government ministries and offices housed in the buildings. Although some documents were retrieved from the site, the damage caused by the blaze was extensive.
The incident stands as the most severe case of fire-related damage to a government-owned building. Maldives Police Service launched an investigation on the same day, and Indian experts joined the inquiry soon after.
However, to date, no details regarding the investigation have been disclosed by the authorities. Although the Police scheduled a press conference some two months ago to brief the press regarding their investigation, even sending out invites, the press conference was cancelled at the last moment.
Thus, the cause of the fire, which burned down ministries and offices maintaining important records, is still unknown, including any potential link to arson.
Sun’s efforts on Friday to obtain a comment from the Police regarding the incident was unsuccessful as well.
Fire at building bloc housing government ministries and offices on December 12, 2024. (Sun Photo)
Numerous allegations surrounding the fire
On the day of the incident, former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom alleged that the fire was deliberately set to destroy documents related to corruption.
In this regard, Yameen noted that different authorities gave varying accounts of how their records were maintained — some saying they were kept on paper, others on servers, and some in the cloud. He raised concerns over vagueness regarding which exact documents were destroyed in the fire.
The former president claimed that the lost document included City Council documents which could warrant corruption allegations against the Council.
Former President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom. (Photo/H.A. Atoll Council)
Meanwhile, main opposition MDP accused the government of gross negligence in dealing with the fire, rising questions over how long it took to control the fire. The party filed separate cases with both the Police and the National Integrity Commission (NIC) over the issue.
Aftermath of the fire
Following the fire, the operations of the three ministries, the EPA, and the affected sections of the City Council were relocated to other buildings. Since then, the Housing and Infrastructure ministries have been merged, as have the Environment and Tourism ministries. At present, only the Housing Ministry continues operations at the temporary office set up for the ministries at Dharubaaruge in the aftermath of the fire.