CHENNAI: Peak hour traffic between Maduravoyal and Arumbakkam on the busy Poonamallee High Road was paralyzed on Tuesday evening, as a fire ravaged a housing tenement there. Nestled between two restaurants and another complex, the fire tore through nearly 13 houses that had thatched roofs. At around 6.50 pm, flames began to appear on the roof of the tenement, diagonally opposite to the DG Vaishnav College. By 7 pm, flecks of burnt debris and sparks from the fire began falling on to the road; as a result traffic police were forced to cut off traffic headed from Poonamallee towards Parrys Corner and this diversion remained in place till 7.45 pm. Preliminary reports suggest that the fire started from an upstairs portion, where rice had been left to boil unattended. Parvathy, owner of the eight minuscule ‘portions’ that she rented out, alleged “Only one house had someone cooking and the lady had a habit of leaving cooking untended. As the portions were small, the fire spread quickly and ravaged all of them. After the first fire engine arrived at 7.15 pm and began fighting the flames, people began moving toward their homes to examine the damage, not heeding the TNFRS officers’ warnings. Suddenly, a loud bang was heard and a huge yellow flash lit up the building as an LPG cylinder burst - the debris and fumes injured three people. Two more fire engines were called in and two water tankers were re-routed to ensure the fire did not spread.
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