Chennai

Sakthivel and his brother, both ran a hardware and electrical shop next to each other on the Medavakkam-Mambakkam main road. On Friday, as usual they shuttered their shops and left for their home at the end of the day.

At around 11.30 pm, smoke billowed from the shops, which began to ignite. The public who saw this informed the fire department.

Firefighters rushed in with 3 fire trucks from Medavakkam, Tambaram and Velachery and tried to douse the fire by spraying water.

But the materials in the shops were susceptible to fire. The paint tubs inside the hardware store exploded and burned, as did the plastic appliances and pipes at the electrical store, which made it difficult to control the fire. It also started spreading to nearby shops.

In addition to the water brought in by the 3 fire trucks, 2 more fire trucks were called from Tambaram and Thoraipakkam.

As the fire trucks ran out of water, the water tankers moving on the road were pulled over and water was sourced from them to the fire truck to put out the fire.

However, by the time it took to douse the massive flames, several lakhs worth of electrical materials including pipes, wires, fans, inverters and plastic items perished.

The Pallikaranai police have registered a case and are conducting an investigation into the incident.

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