Tamil Nadu: 50 shops gutted in fire at Madurai’s Meenakshi temple

The blaze is suspected to have been sparked by an electrical short circuit.

Nearly 50 shops were gutted in a major fire at the Meenakshi Amman temple in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai late on Friday night, police said.

A major fire broke out at shops located under the thousand pillar mandapam inside Madurai ‘s Meenakshi Amman temple in Tamil Nadu on Friday night. (HT File Photo)

Fire service officials battled for two hours to control the fire, suspected to have been triggered off by an electrical short circuit.

The fire broke out at shops located under the thousand pillar mandapam inside the temple complex. The moment the fire was spotted around 10.30pm, five fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire.

Madurai district collector Veera Raghava Rao was present on the spot supervising the fire fighting operations.

He later told media persons that there was no damage to the temple.

Though the exact cause of the fire is not known yet, fire service personnel suspect it could have been sparked by a short circuit in the electric connection in one of the many shops located in the mandapam.