A fire due to a short circuit engulfed around 50 shops in Khaderpet of Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur, the textile capital of south India. According to reports, the fire in one shop started at 9 pm on Friday, June 23, and quickly spread to the nearby shops. The fire was doused by early morning on Saturday, after many shops were gutted, resulting in huge losses. However, there were no deaths or injuries in the fire as nearly all shops had been shut for the day.
Many international brands of repute are made at Tiruppur. The annual turnover of the Tiruppur textile industry is around Rs 50,000 crore. Puthiyathalaimurai reported that textiles and garments worth Rs 2 crore were destroyed in the fire. However, sources in the industry told IANS that the fire has gutted around 50 shops and losses are estimated to be thousands of crores.
A businessman in Tiruppur told IANS, "The industry is already reeling under several issues, including lack of orders from Europe due to the Ukraine-Russia war, shortage of raw materials, and other issues. This loss will compound the losses of the already struggling industry." He also said that the exact losses will be assessed soon.