The electoral council in Venezuela says a fire in its main warehouse near the capital, Caracas, has destroyed most of the voting machines held there. Almost 50,000 voting machines and 582 computers used in the country's elections went up in flames, electoral council chief Tibisay Lucena said. She did not say if parliamentary elections due later this year could be affected by the loss of the machines. She also asked prosecutors to investigate the cause of the fire. What happened? The fire broke out in the 6,000 sq m (65,000 sq ft) warehouse in Mariche, east of Caracas, on Saturday. "Burnt in this fire were 582 computers belonging to the civil registry, 49,408 voting machines, 400 electronic ballots," Ms Lucena said in a news conference on Sunday. What could be the effect? While the warehouse is the main storage facility of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Ms Lucena said, "The electoral process is far from being destroyed." She told reporters electoral procedure in Venezuela consisted of three steps and "only two of its processes" had been affected. However, she did say that "little" had been salvaged from the fire despite great efforts made.