TN school: Thatched roof on fire again

Just two weeks after 94 children were burnt to death in a thatched-shed school at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, another school caught fire this ...

Just two weeks after 94 children were burnt to death in a thatched-shed school at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, another school caught fire this afternoon. However, more than 200 children of the private school at Sellur, in Madurai, had a providential escape, but six dogs — kept in a nearby kennel — were not so lucky.

This time too, a thatched roof was the cause of the fire. However, the fire broke out from a government-licensed thatched-shed wine shop-cum-bar near the school, Fire Service officers said. Since the school was housed in a ‘‘pucca’’ building, the roof did not come crashing down and the alert teachers quickly evacuated the children.

The fire at the wine shop is said to have erupted when some omelettes were being cooked for customers at one end of the bar. All of a sudden, huge flames leapt across the adjoining room of the school, partly damaging a computer there and charring some records. Six dogs housed in a kennel at a corner of the wine shop succumbed to the fire.

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Soon after the Kumbakonam fire tragedy, the Jayalalithaa government had directed all school managements to remove thatched roofs and provide alternate, fireproof roofs by July 31. The Madras High Court had, on a petition, extended this deadline to August 31.

The Government may now crack down on all thatched roof buildings located dangerously close to schools.

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