A major tragedy was averted on Friday Nov 23,2012 after fire and rescue service personnel put out a blaze that broke out in a shop at Express Avenue, the largest mall in Chennai.
At 10.35 a.m., a fire broke out in Regal, a retail footwear outlet on the first floor of the mall. Employees of the shop informed the mall’s fire safety officials, who then proceeded to evacuate the entire complex and closed the mall to outsiders.
Between 11 a.m. and noon, a cinema-goer at the mall placed a call to the fire and rescue department (101). However, this went unheeded.
As the blaze progressed, at 12.40 p.m., mall officials placed a second call to the fire department, which then rushed four tenders (three of water and one of foam) to the mall, from various locations in the city — at least two hours after the fire had first been spotted.
As smoke poured out of the building, panicked shoppers hurried out, forcing the mall’s staff to shut it down. For over seven hours, operations at all 245 retail outlets and the multiplex cinema in the complex were completely paralysed. Even after the fire had been brought under control by 2.30 p.m. and put out shortly after, smoke continued to billow inside the complex, and broken glass was littered all over central atrium — the result of several broken windows.
Express Avenue’s chief financial officer R.R. Aroonkumar said the mall was reopened to the public and normal operations resumed by 6 p.m.
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