Chennai silks fire: Hunt on for 400 kg gold, Rs 20 crore worth diamonds stuck in building

Two days after a massive fire ravaged it, Chennai Silks building in T Nagar of Chennai is being razed but authorities and owners have a different worry. Hunt is on for some 400 kgs of gold and diamonds worth Rs 20 crore that was reportedly kept in a safety locker inside the building.

Efforts are underway to retrieve the locker from the debris of the gutted building. Owners of the establishment claimed that gold approximately 400 kgs in weight and diamonds worth Rs 20 crore was put away inside a vault and are hoping that the fire has not destroyed it as well. The eight-storey building came crashing down a day after a fire broke out. While Chennai silks is a landmark textile showroom in T Nagar of Chennai, the ground floor housed a jewellery shop, Sri Kumaran Thangamaligai. Authorities are hoping to find the vault where jewellery was stored on a fateful day.

The safety locker was placed on the ground floor of the building. While the owners believe that



the locker can withstand any natural calamity or major fire, concerns have been raised over its ability to withstand the massive fire that took officials close to 30 hours to douse. Authorities are currently attempting to recover the said jewellery from the debris. While the fire destroyed textiles worth Rs 80 crore apart from the damage to the building, it is learnt that the owners had insured both.

A fire that broke out on Wednesday morning ravaged the building. The building was said to be illegal and built without procuring proper permissions. It took fire and safety personnel more than a day to bring the fire under control. Civic authority officials claimed that the building was in violation of rules and had sought for it to be sealed. The owners had approached a court and brought a stay on the order after which it was allowed to function. While no lives were lost in Wednesday's incident, it was a wake-up call for authorities on building norms.