A 35-year-old worker sustained burn injuries after a shop that sells pooja items caught fire, destroying two shops and seven two-wheelers, on Kamatchi Amman temple Street near Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai town on Wednesday.
Police said that the injured person was identified as Mohammed Ali, a local. An initial inquiry revealed that it was around 9:20 p.m. on Wednesday when S. Sabeer Ahmed, the shop owner, noticed smoke coming from an electrical box in the shop, located on the ground floor of a single-storey commercial complex with around 30 shops.
Police said a huge volume of camphor, that was stored near the electrical box, went into flames after a spark from the electrical unit. In minutes, fire spread to the entire shop, which is around 100 sq.ft. As they screamed for help, Sabeer Ahmed and his worker Ali, who sustained burns on both his hands, were rescued by other shopkeepers and residents.
Based on an alert, Tiruvannamalai Town police and firefighters from Arunachaleswarar Temple rushed to the spot. An eight-member firefighter team, led by A. Palaniswamy, Station Fire Officer (SFO), struggled to contain the blaze from spreading to other shops and buildings on the narrow stretch.
