Passersby join officials to rescue over a dozen from T Nagar apartment complex on fire

CHENNAI: In a late-night operation on Saturday, the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Service (TNFRS) personnel rescued more than a dozen persons from an apartment complex in T Nagar after a portion of it got engulfed by a major fire. None was injured in the accident.

Apart from TNFRS personnel, several residents came together to rescue several trapped residents and took them to safety, police said. Vimalraj, a medical representative from Padi who was passing by after delivering medicines, sprang into action upon noticing the fire. He climbed up a drainage pipe to reach the third floor and rescued a woman and a five-year-old child, police said.

According to the police, the fire triggered by a suspected electrical short circuit started at an unoccupied apartment on the second floor of the three-storey building on Ramachandra Street. It then quickly spread to other apartments. Fire tenders rushed to the scene along with skylifts.

“At least three persons who were on the terrace were rescued with the help of the skylift, while and two elderly persons stuck inside an apartment were saved and brought out of the building,” a senior TNFRS officer said.