CHENNAI: T Nagar, the retail hub of the city, was abuzz even before sunrise on Wednesday after a fire broke in the wee hours of the morning at a leading textile and jewelry retail shop, exposing the dangers of poor safety precautions and planning. Such was the fire that the fire service personnel could not fully douse it till the time of this report.
The telephone at the T Nagar fire office rang at around 4 am. It is suspected to have started from a short circuit in the basement of Chennai Silks where the silvers were retailed. The fire officers who first arrived on site noted that the staff were trying to use extinguishers to put the fire out since about 3 am.
"We doused the fire in some parts of the ground floor and entered through the rear. Within minutes, we realised that fire had spread to the rest of the building as structures started collapsing down on us," said one of the first fire officers to enter the premises. He added that they immediately left the building as it was too risky and had to engage sky lifts to rescue the trapped employees instead.
"We rescued 11 people at least. Seniors officials said 14 people were rescued in total," said the official with pride.
The personnel also managed to retrieve about 25 LPG cylinders before the fire spread to them, which could have magnified the impact.
According the fire officer, what was a small fire in the basement, blew out of proportion only after 8 am. A passer-by concurred with this. "I was walking near Chennai Silk's entrance in the morning and thought it was a small fire in the basement and that they will open by 11 am," said R Ramakrishnan, a resident of T Nagar. But by 9 am, it had spread till the third floor and fire tenders and water lorries crammed into Pinchala Subramaniam street that runs beside the building.
While the basement has silvers, the ground and first floor retail gold in one half and clothing in the other. All floors above is said to have only clothing, except the top floor where the canteen is located.
Workers and owners of neighbouring shops were unaware of the fire until they showed up on the site. "While we empathise with Chennai Silks, all our business, too, took a dip today," said the managing director of a rival textile retail outlet.
Police said residents of the locality within 100 meters of the Chennai Silks building have been advised to evacuate the place and the general public have been advised not to visit the spot. By 11 am, the fire spread to most parts of the building and thick smoke billowed out of every crevice. The South-Usman Road flyover that runs outside the building was blocked and fire fighting vehicles hosed the building down from atop the flyover. Meanwhile, the fire fighters behind were using the sky lift to douse the fire in several parts of the building.
About 15 fire tenders vehicles were trying to quell the fire from all sides. The personnel broke windows and glass panes to release locked up pressure, while some were drilling parts of the concrete wall as there weren't enough windows in the building.
Every now and then, loud thuds were heard from inside the building suggesting that some structures were breaking or collapsing. However, most of the activity was not visible outside as smoke engulfed the building from inside.
Help was sought from Chennai Metro Rail and Metro Water. Workers from there rushed to the spot by noon offering manpower and equipment that the building or the fire team was short of. A fire officer on site first fell silent when asked about the working condition of the fire-safety equipment. "The fire pump did not work properly. We mostly relied on our own equipment or the ones metro brought," he said. "There is no count on the number of water tankers that came today," he said adding that there were running short of water every now and then.
The smoke reduced a little by twilight, only to spit out flame from different parts of the building, most visible at the rear.
The fire that had spread to all floors did not die out till night. "We expected the fire to be put off by noon. Now we estimate it will burn through the night," said a police official on site. They also fear that the structure has weakened due to the pressure and drastic artificial weathering and fear that it may collapse. Revenue Minister RB Udayakumar who visited the spot said, "We will demolish the building if we find that it violates fire-safety and security norms."
Meanwhile, a fire fighter was injured in his hand the morning while another worker assisting the team fell off a tree while he was clearing out wires from branches. Five ambulances and two two-wheeler ambulances with oxygen, ORS and other equipment and first-aid were deployed in the area.
Speaking to Express, Subodh Kumar, Regional Deputy Commissioner (Central) who is heading the city corporations efforts said they have assembled a health team with a doctor and two paramedical staff at the spot after were receiving complaints about eye irritation and temporary breathing difficulties. This team will work round the clock.
"Our engineers are working along with fire and rescue personnel to ensure building stability," he said, adding that a call on demolishing the structure will be taken by the fire service.