TIRUPATI: Fire broke out in a 50-year-old building at Church Road in Chittoor on Friday. The fire soon spread to an adjoining ground+two structure.
The two buildings owned by Apurva Textiles did not have necessary fire safety measures in place.
The accident happened around 1 am on Friday following which two fire-fighting units were rushed to the spot. They, however, could not control the fire and another fire-fighting unit was summoned from Plamaneru. The fire-fighting operation continued for more than 12 hours.
According to the owners, textile stock worth around Rs 4 crore was gutted. The fire department noted that there was no ventilation space between the buildings.
Speaking to media persons, District Fire Officer V. Sudhakar Reddy said, “We found that there was only one fire extinguisher for the two buildings. The owners claim that the accident took place due to a transformer in front of the shop. But we noted that the intensity of fire was severe both in the front and the backside of the shop.”
“We will investigate the incident. When we reached there first, even the keys of the shops could not be found and we had to break the shutters open with a JCB,” he said.
