Wednesday's inferno at The Chennai Silks on Usman Road in T Nagar not only devastated the eight-storey structure which housed the showroom, but also left around 1,000 households in the neighbourhood and in localities nearby high and dry, after firefighters used more than 10 lakh litres of water to combat the blaze.
Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) diverted more than 9 lakh litres of water through tankers for the emergency operation, deploying 101 tankers, each with a capacity of 9,000 litres, to T Nagar till Thursday morning, officials said.
All of the vehicles transported water to the spot from Metrowater's filling points in Valluvar Kottam and KK Nagar. In addition, fire officers pressed into service 14 tenders, each carrying 5,000 litres of water, and several emergency tankers.
Officers of the fire and rescue services department said they had doused the fire completely by 9 pm on Thursday - after battling the blaze for close to 40 hours.
By this time a large number of the Metrowater tankers were back in business, supplying water to various parts of the city, but Metrowater officials said it would take the utility at least three to four days to make up for the diversion of water to douse the blaze.
The rerouting of water left residents at the mercy of private tanker operators, who hiked prices by as much as 1,000 per load.
"Our sump went completely dry," Saidapet resident K Sarasu said. After making a dozen calls to Metrowater, she said, her family and neighbours purchased water from private suppliers at a cost of around 2,000 for 9,000 litres, or around twice the normal price.
Metrowater officials said the unavoidable diversion of water came at an inopportune time - with the city reeling from a water crisis. Most of the piped water that the utility supplies to 3.5 lakh households in central Chennai, including T Nagar, comes from the city's four main reservoirs, which are now dry. Metrowater has had to find alternate sources to provide these consumers with water it supplies by tankers.
Firemen used more than 10 lakh litres of water in all to combat the blaze over a day and a half, an official said, but Metrowater's free supply of water to slums remained unaffected through the crisis. Fire officers said the operation required more water than they would have normally used because they initially had to direct blasts of water at the flames from afar due to the intensity of the heat and the smoke.
Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) diverted more than 9 lakh litres of water through tankers for the emergency operation, deploying 101 tankers, each with a capacity of 9,000 litres, to T Nagar till Thursday morning, officials said.
All of the vehicles transported water to the spot from Metrowater's filling points in Valluvar Kottam and KK Nagar. In addition, fire officers pressed into service 14 tenders, each carrying 5,000 litres of water, and several emergency tankers.
Officers of the fire and rescue services department said they had doused the fire completely by 9 pm on Thursday - after battling the blaze for close to 40 hours.
By this time a large number of the Metrowater tankers were back in business, supplying water to various parts of the city, but Metrowater officials said it would take the utility at least three to four days to make up for the diversion of water to douse the blaze.
The rerouting of water left residents at the mercy of private tanker operators, who hiked prices by as much as 1,000 per load.
"Our sump went completely dry," Saidapet resident K Sarasu said. After making a dozen calls to Metrowater, she said, her family and neighbours purchased water from private suppliers at a cost of around 2,000 for 9,000 litres, or around twice the normal price.
Metrowater officials said the unavoidable diversion of water came at an inopportune time - with the city reeling from a water crisis. Most of the piped water that the utility supplies to 3.5 lakh households in central Chennai, including T Nagar, comes from the city's four main reservoirs, which are now dry. Metrowater has had to find alternate sources to provide these consumers with water it supplies by tankers.
Firemen used more than 10 lakh litres of water in all to combat the blaze over a day and a half, an official said, but Metrowater's free supply of water to slums remained unaffected through the crisis. Fire officers said the operation required more water than they would have normally used because they initially had to direct blasts of water at the flames from afar due to the intensity of the heat and the smoke.