200 huts gutted in Pulianthope, 5 injured

CHENNAI: In a major blaze, around 200 huts were gutted and five injured at a large hutment colony in Pulianthope on Sunday.Around 1 pm, flames were noticed billowing from a hut located on a playground belonging to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board at Kesava Pillai Park.The residents of 192 huts in the colony had been allotted the playground as temporary housing site after their TNHB flats were demolished for purpose of reconstruction, Basin Bridge Inspector Karnan told Express.“While the flats were ready for occupation, the shifting of the residents was delayed due to Assembly elections,” he said.The fire services control room received the first call at 1.20 am and 13 fire vehicles and 10 Metro water lorries rushed to the site. Since all the huts were thatched dwellings, the fire spread rapidly due to the heat, Fire Officer (Kilpauk) T Saravanan told Express. “We managed to pull out two gas cylinders,” he said.Tension started brewing in the area, even as the first four vehicles arrived at the spot.One of the drivers, Gunasekharan, was slapped, while another driver Sekhar from Vepery fire station suffered burn injuries on his hand due to the intensity of the flames. Residents blocked the road briefly before being cleared by the police.They also broke the windshield of a ‘108’ ambulance.Categorising the blaze as “serious fire”, Saravanan said about 70 firemen battled the flames for an hour and brought them under control.A cooling operation was then carried out, with 200 litres of water sprayed over the area. Denying the charge that there was a delay in the arrival of fire vehicles, he said: “We responded immediately, but the area was very large.” There was no approach road to the colony and the space between the huts narrow. A bulldozer was brought in to demolish the compound wall so that the hose pipes could be extended inside, sources said.While household goods were reduced to ashes - with television sets exploding in the heat - residents claimed that their cash and gold ornaments too were destroyed in the flames. Five persons, who suffered seven per cent burn injuries, were treated as out patients at the Kilpauk medical hospital.The Basin Bridge police have registered a case.