Alert residents avert fire tragedy

Timely intervention by residents and fire department averted a major tragedy after a fire broke out in a refrigerator storage unit at the busy Veerapillai Street, off Commercial Street.

The blaze happened in  Cool Care a refrigeration storage house in the third floor of a residential building.

Karthik, a Veerapillai Street resident, immediately alerted the fire department.

“If the fire department were not informed immediately, it could have proved to be a disaster, as the storage unit had 25 refrigeration gas cylinders,” a fire official said.

Meanwhile in the neighbourhood, a woman, identified as Shabnam, and her seven-year-old daughter had a miraculous escape. Both were stuck in their house, located on the same floor as the refrigeration unit, after a thick blanket of smoke engulfed their house. After the fire department put out the flames, Karthik and his friend managed to bring the two down the stairs to safety.

A relieved Shabnam later told DNA, “We saw smoke entering our house and when we opened the main door to check, we could see flames engulfing the neighbourhood building. We shut the main door and waited for the flames to subside, because it was impossible to climb down the stairs. We anxiously waited for over 45 minutes,” she added.

The thickly populated Veerapillai street houses more then 10 such refrigeration storage units. The residents had complained earlier to the area corporation joint engineer Indra Kumar about the problem, but nothing was done.

Karthik said, “The street is barely nine-foot-wide and this is not the first time such an incident has taken place. This is the second fire incident at the same unit, owned by Vikas. The first was a minor one and local residents had doused the flames.”

Preliminary investigations suggest that the fire was caused because of an electrical short circuit. No casualties were reported and the entire storage unit was gutted.