Two firemen – P. Krishnamoorthy (31) and K. Sivarajan (33) -- were killed when the roof of a textile shop collapsed on them while they were battling a fire in the early hours of Saturday.
Two other firemen, M. Chinna Karuppu (30) and R. Kalyana Kumar (37), who were also trapped under the debris of the building, however, managed to come out and were admitted to private hospital for treatment.
Director of Fire and Rescue Services, Jaffer Sait, who rushed to Madurai, paid his last respects to the two martyrs and offered condolences to their family members. He also visited the injured in the hospital and went to the accident site on Saturday.
Firemen from various fire stations in the city were deputed at various vantage points in the city as a precautionary measure for Deepavali. All the textile shops in the busy bazaar areas of the old city were closed at 1 a.m. after last-minute festive sales.
Just as the firemen, who were on duty right from evening, were relaxing, hoping to go home for the Deepavali celebrations, they got an alert about a fire at Sanjay Textile, on Navabath Khana Street off South Masi Street at around 2.30 a.m.
Immediately three fire tenders that were stationed at different locations rushed in and started fire fighting. As the fire that broke out on the ground floor had spread to the first floor of the building, firemen started to cool off the building using ladders placed against the opposite building, said the Madurai Station Fire Officer, R. Venkatesan.
“Four of our men had gone into the shop and were spraying water from the ground floor, when the first floor came down crashing with a huge noise,” he said. While Chinna Karuppu and Kalyanakumar managed to come out, Krishnamoorthy and Sivarajan were trapped inside.
Earth-movers were rushed to the spot and after clearing the debris, the firemen could be pulled out. But, they succumbed to injuries.
“It is but usual for firemen to get into buildings to trace and put out fires from their source so that they do not spread further. But, since the building was over 50 years old, the Madras roofing structure caved in,” DFO Kalyanakumar said.
South Gate police have registered a case.
