Thick dark smoke emanating from a large expanse of open land in Chennai’s Porur shocked residents and people travelling through the area on Sunday afternoon, 24 February. Videos from the scene show dark ominous clouds of thick smoke rising up along with angry streaks of fire from a private car park in the area, burning scores of parked cars.
The smoke was from a major fire that broke out at a private car parking facility opposite Ramachandra Hospital. Following a distress call that came in at 2.05 pm, eight fire trucks from Egmore reached the spot to douse the fire.
The reason for the fire and the extent of damage are yet to be assessed, several parked cars have reportedly been damaged. Almost an hour later, the fire is yet to be put out by fire safety team.
Speaking to TNM, a fire safety staff from the control room said, “Our fire fighters are currently on field trying to douse the fire. We will get to know more updates on what started the fire and what has been damaged only after the fire is put out.”
A video shared on Twitter shows thick plumes of ash grey smoke rising up in the sky.
Several other Twitter users also shared images that showed the area engulfed in thick grey smoke clouds.
Earlier in January, a major fire broke out at a women’s hostel in the city’s Choolaimedu area. Five women, one of whom was pregnant, were rescued from the bathroom of the building on 14 January. According to a report in The Hindu, police suspected that the fire was the result of a short-circuit in a hall on the first floor.
There have been several reports of fire from different parts of south India in the last few days. On Saturday, 23 February, a massive fire damaged at least 300 vehicles parked in parking area number 5 at the venue of the Aero India 2019 airshow in Yelahanka, Bengaluru.
On the same day, a major fire broke out in the forest areas of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. The fire has spread across Kundakere, Bandipur and Gopalaswamy Betta ranges of the tiger reserve, and officials expect that it will take at least two more days to contain it.
On Friday, 22 February, a massive fire broke out at the Brahmapuram waste management plant in Kochi, Kerala, with smoke engulfing the city for hours. Just hours after this fire was doused, another major fire broke out on the grasslands near Mangalavanam bird sanctuary, also in Kochi.
(This story was first published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
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