The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Fire in store selling chemical substances

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Sunday, Mar 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Fire in store selling chemical substances

Staff Reporter

Short circuit caused by battery-operated racquets suspected

ENGULFING FLAMES: Fire at the store selling chemical substances in Sheela Nagar second Street, Madipakkam on Saturday. — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

TAMBARAM: A fire broke out in a wholesale and retail store of household chemical substances functioning from a house in Madipakkam on Saturday.

Though no one was hurt, eyewitnesses and residents said it was a miraculous escape for several people in the vicinity.

Forty-two-year-old Manikandan was running the store on Sheela Nagar Second Street. It was selling phenyl, disinfectants, acids and other chemical substances.

Around 6.30 p.m., a tanker carrying turpentine was offloading a chemical substance into cans in the house through a hosepipe when the accident took place. An electrical short circuit could have resulted in the fire, officials said.

The hosepipe was severed and the chemical tanker, with a capacity to carry 12,000 litres, removed from the spot. However, cans of chemical substances were consumed by the fire with many of them bursting.

People in houses nearby fled after locking their houses, an eyewitness said. R.Seshadri of Keelakattalai said the thick noxious fumes caused irritation to the eyes of people nearby.

Sources said a function at a private school near the accident spot was stopped and the children rushed to safety.

It took more than an hour for the first fire tender to reach the spot. The nearest fire stations at Tambaram, Guindy and Tiruvanmiyur are at least 7 km away. Though a couple of fire tenders managed to put out the flames, houses in the area suffered extensive damage. Cycles and motorcycles were also damaged. Power supply in the area was cut off as a precautionary measure.

The Madipakkam police suspect that an electrical short circuit could have caused the fire. A spark from battery-operated racquets used by some children for swatting mosquitoes could have caused the fire.

Mr. Seshadri, an Exnora member, wondered how such a hazardous unit was allowed to function from residential area.

On April 22 last year, a 35-year-old woman employee of a similar store died in a fire on the premises on Kamarajar Street in West Tambaram, a residential area.

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