A fire broke out on the first floor of a house at Ponnurunni on Wednesday afternoon reducing its contents to ashes before spreading to a lodge next to it, inflicting a collective damage in excess of around ₹6 lakh.
None of the migrant workers who had taken the space on rent were present when the fire broke out around 2 p.m.
Three units from Gandhi Nagar fire station rushed to the scene and it took them an hour to douse the fire.
“The occupants had gone out in the middle of cooking and the fire probably spread from the stoves fuelled by kerosene and fire woods. By the time the fire was doused everything in the room, including those stoves, were reduced to ashes,” a fire officer said.
The fire also spread to the adjacent lodge consuming its ceiling, furniture and fans.
