Fire In Chennai Telephone Exchange

A major fire in the Anna Salai exchange of Chennai Telephones paralysed business and telephone services in the city yesterday.

About 30,000 lines of the Anna Salai exchange, the largest in the city and which takes care of bulk of the requirements of the main business district in the city, were damaged in the blaze. According to preliminary indications, the fire broke out at about 3.30 am on Monday. As the fire broke out in the wee hours of the morning, the exchange building was largely unmanned and there were no casualties.

Although the cause of the fire is still being investigated, indications are that it broke out in the second floor of the building which is the exchanges battery and power room due to an electrical short circuit.

 

Four floors of the seven-storey building have been completely gutted and the maximum damage has been on the fifth and sixth floors. All cable ducts have been completely burnt although the switching equipment Ericsson and Alcatel have survived the fire. The magnitude of the damage is being assessed and officials remained tight-lipped about the insurance claims that the fire will entail.