Major General Ibrahim Hilmy, Chief of Defence Force of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), has stated that it took six hours and 15 minutes to control the fire that broke out in the building housing the Ministry of Housing, Land and Urban Development.

Providing information about the fire incident to journalists on Saturday, Hilmy said that they were informed about the fire incident at 6:27am and responded immediately.

Hilmy further said that at 6:30am, they arrived at the scene of the incident, and the first firefighting team began their work.

He said that they entered the building divided into two teams and began the process of identifying the areas where the fire had spread.

Noting that at the time there was a lot of smoke inside the building, Hilmy said that there were initially no visible signs of fire.

Hilmy further explained that after identifying the areas affected by fire using a thermal camera, while they were working on extinguishing the fire inside the building, flames started to spread from several parts of the building.

He said that the teams were evacuated as it was not safe for the firefighting teams to remain inside.

Highlighting that their top priority was to ensure that no one's life was endangered and to prevent the fire from spreading to any nearby buildings. Hilmy stressed that they managed to control the fire without allowing it to cross the street and expand the incident by spreading to any other buildings although it spread within the compound.

Hilmy said that the fire was brought under control at 12:45pm and fully doused by evening.