Fire mishap at Tirumala temple kitchen

Tirumala : In an unexpected manner huge fire flared up in 'Inner Potu', which is maintaining by private contractor, adjacent to the 'Ugranam' (Temple food grain store) located in first compound wall of the temple 'Sampangi Prakaram' at the back side of the main temple 'Anandha Nilayam' at around 5.15 hours at evening on Saturday. This fire accident took place when a 'Potu' worker tried to drop a wet 'Vada' into boiled ghee frying pan. It is general practice to maintain maximum flame level while dropping the flour made wet 'Vada' paste into boiled ghee. At this situation the flames naturally will occupy half mark of the height of the frying pan. While the fumes of boiled ghee catch fire flames, the worker stunned and went into a confusion state. Within seconds the sticky carbon waste on the inner side of the compound wall caught flame and spread to almost all to the top end. Immediately the co-workers in this kitchen poured water to control the flames, which has aggravated the situation. After the sticky material on wall caught flames, heavy dark smoke came out from roof top and the devotees shouted in loud noice and gathered at safe place. Immediately the kitchen workers alerted the security people and temple staff, who controlled the fire with handheld fire extinguishers. All fire flames were almost all controlled much before the arrival of fire tender machines to spot. As the dark smoke coming out from kitchen the fire tender vehicles rushed the spot and helped the security and temple staff. The flames almost all reached to 34 feet height. About fifty liters of boiled ghee were burnt in flames. The vigilance and temple staff, who were on duty, rushed the spot and helped in controlling the fire. JEO K S Srinivasa Raju said a smouldering oil caught fire and subsequently a thick smoke engulfed the area. The staff, Octopus, vigilance, police and several others helped prevent the fire from spreading. It is the second fire accident during the recent years. The first major fire accident was happened in 2008, which was also in summer season, and this is such kind of accident after five years.