KOLLAM: Stocks worth lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes in a major fire which broke out at a Beverages Corporation retail outlet at Thirumukku in Eravipuram on Saturday. Police said that no one was injured as the incident took place in the wee hours, while a preliminary estimate points out to a loss of Rs 55 lakh.Registers, expensive bottles of liquors and almost everything in the outlet were gutted. However, cash worth nearly Rs 5 lakh stored in the steel cupboard was not destroyed. The fire also spread to the adjacent godown.Locals who were out for morning walk noticed smoke emanating from the outlet at around 6 a.m. and informed the police.Five fire tender units from Kadappakkada and Paravur Fire and Rescue Service stations reached the spot and doused the fire by around 9.30 a.m. The exact loss would be estimated only after the inspection by Beverages Corporation officials, police said.BURGLARS’ HAND SUSPECTEDEven while the heavy downpour overnight point towards short-circuit as a possible cause for the fire, police also suspect it to be a handiwork of burglars. Burglars had broken into another Beverages Corporation outlet at Punthalathazham near here and decamped with bottles of liquor worth Rs 14,000 and Rs 1,300 in cash.Eravipuram CI Balaji told ‘Express’ that the same gang is suspected to have attempted robbery at the Thirumukku outlet. It is suspected that the burglars must have vented their anger over the low return from both the outing, by setting the outlet on fire, he said. Possibilities are also of fire spreading from any instruments used by the gang to break open the locks.
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