Major fire at 'Annadanam' canteen

• Second accident in three days
• No fire fighting system inside store roomA
• No 'NoC' from fire department
• Electricity officials ruled out short-circuit

Tirupati: A major fire broke out at a store room of 'Vengamamba Nitya Annadanam Canteen' on Tirumala Hill in the early hours of Tuesday. However none was hurt in the mishap. This is the second fire accident that took place in a span of three days. Earlier, a fire struck at 'Potu' (kitchen). Tens of tonnes of foodgrains including pulses and rice was damaged in this fire mishap. Though initially the fire service officials, TTD security staff and electrical engineers concluded that short-circuit be the cause of fire mishap, it is said that traditional oil lamp inside the store room was the cause of the mishap. The marketing wing of TTD estimated the total loss at about Rs. 20 lakh. Tonnes of food grains damaged: Due to the fire mishap about 5000 kgs of steamed rice got waste. The kitchen staff and health workers took out the damaged cooked rice from canteen and dumped in Gogarbham reservoir to feed fish. Tens of bags of dal was also damaged and dumped in the forest area. It is a general practice to the TTD to keep the stock needed for five days in store rooms I and II, and the rice stock for one day. On an average about 40,000 pilgrims take lunch and dinner every day and the steamed rice was prepared for the lunch on Tuesday much before the fire mishap. It is estimated that the food preparation is for 20,000 pilgrims. Many doubts behind the fire mishap: The fire officials suspected that the auto generation of heat from the stock piles of empty gunny bags or the conventional oil lamp in the store room fell and ignited the dal gunny bags. Soon after knowing the fire mishap news, TTD chairman Kanumuri Bapiraju and Joint Executive Officer KS Srinivasa Raju rushed to the spot. A senior electrical engineer said that there was absolutely no electrical short circuit and no power supply was disconnected with this fire mishap. Property Loss: The 'Annadanam' deputy executive officer Venugopal said that the loss to civil engineering wing was estimated at about Rs. 1.30 lakh and Rs. 20,000 to electrical wing. Ten bags of Sugar, turmeric powder, dried chillies and coriander seeds were burnt to ashes in this fire mishap, he added. While controlling the fire a few food items have become unusable with the usage of chemicals by firemen and this was estimated at a cost of Rs. 10 lakh, he said. Apart from this about 50 bags (each bag contains 100 kgs) of rice also became unused, he said. Whereas the marketing wing of TTD estimated the total loss at about Rs. 20 lakh. With this fire mishap the lunch began at about 2.00 pm against the regular timing of 11.00 am.