CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS) who were criticised by Chennai Silks for delaying the fire fighting process have reverted strongly on Friday. According to them, the private security personnel roped in by the firm, delayed the process as gold and diamond jewelleries were stacked in the ground floor. In an interview with Express, Joint Director of TNFRS, M Shahul Hameed explains the sequence of events. Here are the excerpts...
Was there a delay on your side as the MD of Chennai Silks, K Manickam alleges?
Absolutely no. Firemen from T Nagar reached the spot within five minutes on receiving the alert (4 am). Also, we believe that the fire must have broken out much earlier. The ground floor caved in around 7.30 am. Normally it takes six hours for a concrete floor to cave in during fires. So, the workers should have called us only after couldn’t control the fire.
What exactly caused the fire and how did spread quickly to other floors ?
Many combustible materials including 5,000 litres of diesel, cosmetics (high-pressure body spray containers) and tiles stacked in the north west corner of the basement should have triggered the fire. This also happened to be the weakest portion of the building, the first part of the seven-storeyed structure to collapse.
What was the most challenging part ?
We have never encountered fire accidents in buildings with absolutely no ventilation such as this one. Except the main entrance, there was no ways to enter the building which had no fire staircases or adequate setback spaces. Also, the damage might’ve been mitigated if water supply to the sprinklers in the basement was not cut-off.
Why did it take as long as 24 hours to put out the fire?
Water has a latent heat capacity of 600 degree celcius. Since the temperature exceeded this limit, water turned to steam. Even penetrations along the sides to provide some ventilation helped only to a certain extent. Plastic and clothing materials stocked in huge quantities aggravated the fire.
What are the lessons learned?
The silver lining was that there was no loss of life. All 14 men trapped were rescued to safety using the 54-metre skylifts. We are looking at implementing pillar hydrants on the lines of European nations along congested streets in Chennai.