The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Losses run into lakhs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 09, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Losses run into lakhs

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JULY 8. Property worth several lakhs of rupees was destroyed in a fire that broke out in Chennai's centrally located shopping mall, Spencer Plaza, last night. Following this, the mall was closed to visitors on Thursday, but will open on Friday morning.

The fire completely gutted two shops on the ground floor of Phase II and damaged several other shops. No one was hurt.

Firemen and police said an electrical short circuit had caused the fire when an employee of one of the two stores that burnt down - Shoetown - switched off the mains just before closing the shop at 9 p.m. He tried to put the flames out using a fire extinguisher, but failed. He then called out to security personnel.

Only after their efforts to put out the fire failed, did they alert the fire control room, police said.

Firemen said they received a call at 9.25 p.m. and sent fire-tenders to the spot. A senior officer of the Southern Division of the Fire Services and Rescue Department said when they reached the plaza, thick black smoke had completely engulfed Phase II. Due to the smoke, they were unable to locate the origin of the fire.

The officer said though they had breathing apparatus, they were unable to go near the origin of the fire due to poor visibility caused by the smoke. They sprayed water from the first and ground floors.

Shops in the other phases too were filled with smoke which managed to spread through the air-condition ducts.

There was no proper ventilation and the exhaust fans were not working.

As a result, the smoke thickened within the shopping mall, the officer said. They then broke glass windows on the first floor to clear the place of smoke. They were able to reach the source and put out the flames completely only around 3 p.m.

A staffer guarding the Chennai Telephones' exchange, who was trapped inside, was able to contact the security staff of the shopping complex with his cellphone. Police and firemen broke down the wall of the room inside which he was trapped and rescued him.

Though the shopping complex had hydrants and sufficient water in its sumps to fight fires, they did not have trained firefighters, the officer said.

There were smoke detectors only in the corridors and not in the shops, and firefighters had to rip off the false ceiling in the corridors to prevent the fire from spreading.

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