Five houses collapse in cracker godown blast near Vaniyambadi

Five houses collapsed when an explosion occurred at an illegal cracker godown-cum-shop in Echangal village near Vaniyambadi town in Tirupattur on Friday. No one was injured in the accident. The police said that the landlord K. Ramamurthy, 62, a native of Tirupattur, was running a licensed cracker shop in Vaniyambadi for many years. He also had a cracker godown at his house in Echangal village. He was running a small cracker shop in his son’s name, R. Ayyappan, 30, in front of the house. The license for the shop and godown expired in 2003. He did not renew the license. Around 4 p.m. on Friday, Ramamurthy and his son Ayyappan were having a conversation outside their house when they heard a loud noise. They soon noticed the crackers in the house bursting. This led to the collapse of the tiled roof of at least five nearby houses. The police said that being a working day, the children and adults were either at school or at work, while most of the elders were outside the houses when the incident occurred. The residents alerted Amballur police and the firefighters from Vaniyambadi were rushed to the spot. The fire was put out after an hour. J. Narayanan, District Revenue Officer (DRO), Tirupattur, inspected the spot. Based on a complaint, police registered a case against Ayyapan, who was also the local treasurer for BJP. Later, he was arrested.

Published - November 29, 2024 11:20 pm IST