Tamil Nadu forest fire: Nine dead, 27 rescued

THENI: Nine people have died in the forest fire in Kurangani hills in Theni district of Tamil Nadu by Monday morning, confirmed the district collector of Theni. After night-long operations, a joint team consisting of police, fire and rescue men and forest personnel rescued 27 of the 39 trekkers who were caught in the fire.


Among the rescued, four suffered severe burn injuries ranging from 40 per cent to 90 per cent. They were shifted to Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai.

Visuals of forest-fire in Kurangani. (ANI photo)

The accident spot is 8km uphill out of the 10km trek from Kolukkumalai to Kurangani. It took two to three hours of intensive trek for all rescue team members to reach the spot.

The rescue team consisted of around 250 members.

On Monday morning, two helicopters took off from the Indian Air Force station. Flight Lieutenant Manoj from Air Force team said they could control the fire in two to three hours by using water.

Help centre established at Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital to provide information on injured trekkers.

The first rescue operations was started by the 108 ambulance team on Sunday afternoon after one of the trekkers, Nivedha, called the ambulance service from the accident spot. The ambulance’s paramedic, Jegadeesh, was first to reach the spot and render medical help to the injured.

State health minister C Vijaya Baskar reached the downhill and said health teams and hospital were ready to treat the injured trekkers.

There were 39 trekkers – 12 from Erode and 27 from Chennai. Preliminary investigations revealed that the trekkers, after being caught in fire, tried to take refuge inside a dried up stream. But the dried grass in the stream quickly caught fire.
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