Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Shop blaze kills two Sri Lankan tourists

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, AUG. 24. Two Sri Lankan tourists, both women, were burnt to death in a fire that broke out at a garment shop on Kennet Lane, Egmore in Central Chennai, today.

The victims have been identified as H.M. Podinona (75) and P. Hemavathy (70) of Amparai. The two women had come to the shop with four other Sri Lankans when they were trapped by the blaze around 2.30 p.m. Police and fire fighters suspect that a short circuit in the main junction box located on the ground floor of the complex could have caused the fire.

Six saleswomen in the shop, Men's Trust, ran outside to safety taking along with them four of the Sri Lankan shoppers. However, the victims were trapped in the mezzanine floor, with thick smoke inside the shop marring visibility.

The sales staff said they were not aware of the presence of the two women on the mezzanine floor. While they were trying to put out the fire with the help of men working in adjacent shops, an employee of a hotel opposite the garment shop alerted the fire control room.

P. Vijayakumar, Divisional Fire Officer (South) from the Fire Services and Rescue Department, said the control room logged the call at 2.52 p.m. The call came only after efforts to put out the fire by the saleswomen and others failed, the officer said. Three fire tenders from Egmore and Kilpauk put out the blaze in 20 minutes.

However, firemen had to struggle for nearly an hour before breaking open a part of the wall to enter the mezzanine floor where the victims were trapped.

Meenakshi Vijayakumar, Divisional Fire Officer (North), said of the shop, ``it is a blatant misuse of space.'' The cramped shop stocked a big quantity of synthetic clothes, which caused the fire to spread rapidly. The steps leading to the mezzanine floor were too narrow for even one person to climb comfortably. Under such circumstances, the mezzanine floor should have been used only to store the clothes. Further, the shop lacked even basic fire fighting devices, the officers said.

The victims were part of a 312-member Buddhist tourist group from Sri Lanka, which reached Chennai on August 5. On August 7, they left Chennai and visited pilgrim centres in Nepal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, before returning to the city yesterday, said George Gnanaprakasam, group coordinator. The visitors were staying in Egmore and were scheduled to take a flight back home to Sri Lanka tomorrow. Today, the tourists were allowed to go shopping.

Enquiries showed that many of the shops on Kennet Lane functioned without proper emergency preparedness. For instance, a restaurant close to the shop has a kitchen on the mezzanine floor and dining hall on the ground floor.

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