1 week ago
145
A fire gutted a mobile phone outlet and a juice shop on Bazaar Street in Gudiyatham town near Vellore during the early hours on Saturday.
According to the police, at around 4.30 a.m., a few farmers at the farmers’ market in the area noticed smoke rising from a thatch-roofed watermelon shop nearby. The market houses around 70 open shops and a cold storage facility.
Immediately, they alerted the owner of the shop, S. Muniyan (50), a native of Gudiyatham, who rushed to the spot. Together, they tried to douse the fire with water and sand that was available nearby. However, the fire’s intensity kept increasing and soon engulfed the mobile phone shop.
The residents alerted the Gudiyatham Town police and firefighters, who hurried to the spot and attempted to extinguish the fire. The firefighters used six tanks full of water to bring the fire under control. It took more than an hour to completely douse the fire.
A case has been registered by the Gudiyatham Town police. Initial inquiries by the police revealed that fire originated from a nearby heap of open garbage, possibly lit by miscreants, which then spread to the thatched-roofed fruit shop before reaching the mobile phone outlet. Further investigation is going on.
