CHENNAI: Barely 10 days after a heritage building was gutted at state-owned Ezhilagam, thousands of books were destroyed in a major blaze that broke out in a leading publishing house housed in an architectural landmark in the heart of the city on Thursday. Around 10 am, thick smoke was seen billowing out of S Chand and Company Ltd’s warehouse on the first floor of Agurchand Mansion, one of the oldest buildings on arterial Anna Salai. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (Triplicane) S Senthil Kumaran, the publishing house was closed on account of Republic Day and occupants of nearby buildings alerted the police, fire services and the company’s staff,It took more than an hour for a team of 45 firefighters, led by divisional fire officer (south) S Veeramani, to bring the flames under control. Six fire tenders and four Metro Water lorries were pressed into service.“Since there was thick smoke, we had to break open the windows to ventilate the room,” Veeramani told Express, adding, “We suspect that electrical leakage from one of the air-conditioning units led to the fire.”While thousands of books stored on shelves and in wooden cartons were destroyed in the blaze, water used to put out the blaze soaked over a hundred others.According to the firm’s assistant regional director, T Rajalingam, there were about three lakh books worth crores of rupees at the warehouse when the fire broke out.The publishing house has been operating from the heritage building for nearly half a century, he added.
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