Major fire at Aavin godown

CHENNAI: Several tonnes of milk powder were destroyed in a major blaze that engulfed the state-run Aavin dairy godown at Sholinganallur on Thursday. While the total loss was pegged at Rs 2.5 crore, police are probing if it was a case of sabotage. Smoke could be seen billowing through the windows around 10.30 am, some seven hours after the fire broke out. Aavin spokesperson S Vasudevan told Express that the incident would not affect milk supply to the city.  Vasudevan said, the plant on Rajiv Gandhi Salai was one of the three dairies operated by Aavin in Chennai. The other two are located at Ambattur and Madhavaram. The dairies supplied a total of 10.5 lakh litres of milk to the city daily. “The Sholinganallur dairy alone supplies 3.5 lakh litres to areas in South Chennai,” said Vasudevan. Fresh milk brought to the dairy is usually ‘reconstituted’ by adding milk powder and butter to produce four categories of products, including high fat and skimmed milk. According to Vasudevan, milk powder packed in polyethylene and paper bags, were brought in from Erode, Salem and other districts and stored at the godown. Around 3 am, employees at the packaging section noticed flames coming out of the godown and ran out. Even as the fire control room was alerted, the blaze began to spread rapidly and engulfed the entire building. Later, 40 firemen, five fire engines, 15 Metro-water lorries and a rescue vehicle, led by T David Vincent, Deputy Director, N-W Region, Vellore, rushed to the spot to contain the blaze. It took the firemen more than five hours to finally bring the flames under control.