CHENNAI: A fire at a research centre of a private pharmaceutical company at Sholinganallur on Sunday damaged many lab equipment, computers and furniture. Fire personnel fought the flames for over four hours to bring it under control. Police suspect the cause to be an electrical short circuit. However, no casualties were reported, as it was a holiday.Police said that the fire broke out at the research centre of a private Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd on Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Sholinganallur, around 8.30 am. Fire tenders from Siruseri, Guindy, Thiruvanmiyur and Maraimalainagar rushed to the spot.The fire personnel said that it took about four hours for them to get inside the burning building, located behind the main building on the premises as thick black smoke engulfed the area. The fire quickly spread to the two floors above as well. “The lab had a false ceiling with thermocol and the rooms were divided with partitions made of foam material. They had small bottles of chemicals, as it was only a research centre and not a manufacturing unit. The chemicals were burning and only smoke came out of the building. There were small flames in places where the air-conditioners were burning,” said a fire officer.About 40 fire personnel had to break the windows to splash water inside and about 10 water lorries were lined up for help. The fire was doused around noon, the police said.Police said expensive lab equipment, computers, furniture along with some chemical raw material were damaged. Many trained fire fighters from the company too turned up for help. “About 100 skilled fire persons arrived from the company’s Alathur facility. The company had all the safety measures. They provided us with the foam to put off the fire,” said a police official. Some staff even provided help to disperse the crowd gathered around the premises along with policemen deployed to secure the area, police sources said.
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