Tree catches fire, falls on school building in Madurai

A huge tamarind tree near the Government Higher Secondary School in Tiruppalai here caught fire and fell on the terrace of the school building on Wednesday morning.

The Ward 24 councillor, Shanmugapriya Hoshimin, said she had noticed that a part of the tree had caught fire on Wednesday morning and immediately informed the Fire and Rescue Services.

“The tree had caught fire from its roots which had caused the trunk and the branches to collapse on the terrace of the school situated nearby,” she said. However, no damage to the building was reported.

Two hours for clearing

Fire and Rescue Services personnel arrived at the spot at 9 a.m. with an Emergency Rescue Tender (ERT) vehicle. “While it took less than 30 minutes for us to douse the flames, the firemen spent more than two hours clearing the branches off the terrace using power saws and other equipment,” said Divisional Fire Officer K. Karuppiah.

The officials suspected that people who were trying to extract honey from the honeycombs on the trees, might have lit the fire which would have affected the tree as there were strong winds in the area.