THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A massive fire gutted two buildings near Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple early Sunday morning. This is the third major fire outbreak in the high-security zone in past six months, including the one that raged at Rajadhani building. Around 15 tenders from across the district were part of firefighting. A firefighter, Manoj, attached to Chenkalchoola station, and a police commando, Adarsh, suffered injuries including fracture while trying to douse the blaze. The buildings belonged to the postal department.
Officials said commandos guarding the temple noticed the fire caught on the CCTV first at 3.30 am. The fire force was alerted and immediately around six units from Chenkalchoola, and Chackai rushed to the spot. As officials were alarmed by its gravity, nine more units were rushed in from as far as Varkala and Neyyattinkara. The fire crews said that flammable jute sacks which were used to deliver mail bundles were stocked in two godowns here. The blaze had destroyed several files before it was brought to control with the help of police forces around 6 am.
Some maintenance work had happened on the post office premises a day before the blaze. The fire department is probing the cause. Postal director A. Thomas Lourde Raj also has launched an internal inquiry into the incident. Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran observed that prima facie there seemed to be negligence from postal department. Temple administrative officer K.N. Satheesh expressed concern over the frequent fire in the area.
