CHENNAI : Residents of Chintadripet suffered a sleepless night with power supply disconnected for few hours following a fire on West Coovum Street at midnight. The fire damaged an auto and parts of a transformer, the police said and added that a cigarette butt in some garbage caused the fire.Fire officials said they received a phone call at approximately 12.05 am saying a fire had broken out in some garbage dumped in a corner of West Coovum Street. Fire fighters from Egmore, Kilpauk and Triplicane were dispatched but by the time they arrived the fire had spread to the transformer and a roofless auto rickshaw parked nearby. Smoke rose close to 20 feet high and residents from the nearby Swami Naicken Street came out of their houses.“We woke up when the fan stopped working. That’s when I smelt the smoke and came outside. I was shocked to see huge flames,” said Parvathi, who lives opposite where the fire broke out.Personnel from the Fire Department sprayed water to subdue the fire but it just simmered, producing more smoke. Two firemen ran across the street to bring some mud to try and douse the simmering fire.Policemen diverted vehicles from using the road and power supply for the connecting streets was disconnected as a safety measure. “It’s not the fire, it’s the power cut that worries us. I think power supply will resume only in the morning,” said a worried Kumar, as he sat on the verandah of his house looking at the struggling fire personnel. The firemen fought the fire for close to an hour and finally left the spot by 2 am, the police said.Residents said that power supply resumed after a few hours.
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