A part of the seven-storeyed Chennai Silks building collapsed on early hours of Thursday
For the second consecutive day, T Nagar Chennai's major textile shopping hub remained shut as fire continued to raged. A part of the seven-storeyed Chennai Silks building collapsed on early hours of Thursday.
Even though the fire was nearly extinguished on Thursday afternoon, the busy market area was still engulfed in smoke emanating from the building. Preparations are underway to raze down the building whose top five floors collapsed in the morning. This put the made building unstable and dangerous for the adjacent buildings.
The building collapsed because of the intense heat from the fire that began at 4 am on Wednesday reportedly as a result of a short-circuit. But no causalities or injuries have been reported; 12 people were rescued using hydraulic lifts.
Declaring the area unsafe, the police cordoned off T Nagar, which, in turn, forced the shutdown of other shops and offices in the area for two days. Over 150 firefighters battled the flames and more than 100 water tanks were used.
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister D Jayakumar told reporters the building will be manually demolished within three days as it has no structural stability. Although the building could be demolished within seconds using modern technology, it could not be considered in view of the structure being located in a key commercial area in corporation limits.
Housing Minister Udumalai Radhakrishnan said the building had legal permission for only four floors, but deviated from the plan to build four more floors. "However, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority could not initiate action against the building as they got an order from the High Court," he said.
A team comprising of top government officials and experts including one from the IIT Madras have begun assessing the fire-ravaged building. Speaking to reporters after inspecting the structure, Revenue Minister RB Udhaya Kumar said the next step for the government was to "remove the building without causing any disturbance to commercial and residential buildings in the vicinity".
FIRE TIMELINE
- The fire that started on Wednesday, continued till Thursday late afternoon.
- Part of the textile showroom collapsed making the structure unstable.
- According to fire official, the fire had started because of a short-circuit.
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