Arakkonam: Trucks carrying silt, straw, and tar catch fire, drivers escape safely

Several road vehicles have recently burst into flames in the vicinity of Arakkonam, with reports consistently indicating that the drivers involved managed to escape without serious injury. The nature of the cargo and the immediate cause of ignition vary across incidents.

In one instance reported around midday on Saturday, a truck carrying silt caught fire near Thanigai Polur village. The driver, Velusamy, 38, a resident of Tiruvallur, successfully exited the vehicle before the driver's cabin became engulfed. The material was being transported from Tiruttani to Sunguvarchatram.

Another Saturday incident involved a truck laden with straw. This vehicle ignited in Panapakkam village after its cargo reportedly made contact with a low-hanging live overhead cable. The driver, Reddiyappa Raju, 43, from Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, also managed to abandon the vehicle. The straw was en route from Panapakkam to Chittoor, and the fire originated as the truck passed a government school on the Panapakkam-Arakkonam Main Road.

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Further complicating the pattern, a tanker lorry carrying bitumen tar experienced a blaze near Arakkonam town on a Wednesday morning. This fire was attributed to a spark generated during welding operations. Workers were attempting to connect a pipeline to transfer the liquid tar from the tanker to a storage tank. The driver, Santhosh, from Manali, Chennai, escaped unharmed. Fire services were alerted by tar plant personnel and extinguished the flames.

Separately, an incident from August 2020 details a truck parked near the Jawahar Tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway catching fire. The driver, identified as Ajaz Ahmad Lone, reportedly escaped unhurt. Vehicular movement on the highway was temporarily halted due to this event. The truck's registration number was noted as JK13B-2215.