Firefighters struggle for hours to douse the Chennai Silks blaze

Using a skylift, firefighters rescued 12 people who were inside the building, which caught fire about 4 AM on Wednesday, but it took the officers more than 10 hours to put out the fire. Meanwhile, a fire fighter was rushed to a hospital in an ambulance around 11 am as he suffered injuries on his arm while inside the building. (D Sampath Kumar | EPS)

The fire was likely caused by short circuit, a fire service personnel said. As many as 21 fire tenders besides three skylift trucks and 75 personnel led by senior officials were involved in the operations. (D Sampath Kumar | EPS)

Officials said to ensure safety, the textile showroom and the area around it had been declared out of bounds for the public. (P Jawahar | EPS)

The first and second floor of the seven-floor building have been gutted, and with thick, black smoke coming out of all the floors, it is unclear how bad the damage is in the rest of the building. Apart from the fire engines, over 10 water tankers were deployed, said local police officials. (P Jawahar | EPS)

There is an SBI Bank building next door alongside shops like Gandhiji Sweets as well as numerous other stores in the vicinity. (P Jawahar | EPS)

The smoke was not billowing towards the busy Usman Road, however, and was moving towards the back of the building which police said was a blessing as there is nothing behind the building. (P Jawahar | EPS)

The fire is believed to have started in the basement and spread upwards to the higher floors. (P Jawahar | EPS)

The massive fire exposed the dangers of poor safety precautions and planning. The crowded shopping hub of T Nagar is a veritable tinderbox, with various textile stores dotting the roads having been poorly planned for fire safety. Damage to goods would likely run into crores; there were no loss of lives as the fire broke out in the early hours of the day. (P Jawahar | EPS)