The fire that destroyed over 20 shops in Coonoor on Wednesday night.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Over 20 shops were destroyed in a fire at the more than 150-year-old Coonoor Municipal Market on Wednesday night.
The fire broke out at around 11 p.m. and raged for over seven hours, destroying property believed to be worth more than ₹50 lakh, said District Fire Officer (Nilgiris) P. Krishnamurthy.
Though the cause of the fire was yet to be established, the Fire Department suspects that an electrical short circuit or an improperly extinguished flame could have been the source of the fire. “As the merchants alleged arson to get them to vacate their shops, the investigation was handed over to the Nilgiris district police,” said an official, adding that there was no indication or evidence to prove the merchants’ allegations.
The merchants were opposed to plans by the Municipality to raze and upgrade the market for the last few months.
Fire tenders from Udhagamandalam, Coonoor, and Kotagiri fire stations, the Cordite factory in Aravankadu and the Madras Regimental Center (MRC) in Wellington, Coonoor, rushed to the scene to help put out the blaze. Private water lorries too were called in as officials battled through the night.
Complicating the efforts were lack of fire safety procedures followed within the confines of the market. “Due to the extremely narrow access paths, it was very difficult to manoeuvre fire hoses effectively, while the narrow streets also allowed for only a single fire tender to be able to be used at one time,” said an official from the Fire Department.
The Nilgiris District Collector, Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru and District Superintendent of police, N.S.Nisha, also went to the market and oversaw efforts to extinguish the blaze.
Published – March 27, 2025 05:43 pm IST
