A fire broke out at Chennai’s LIC building on Anna Salai after a digital board short-circuited on Sunday, April 2. The fire department’s spot officer Vadivelu confirmed to TNM that the fire has been put out and there have been no casualties. “The digital board bearing the LIC logo that is mounted on the building’s roof caught fire after an electrical failure. The fire has been put out and everything is under control now,” he said. The control room of the fire department also told TNM that the fire started around 6pm in the evening and was quickly put out. 

The remains of the digital board after the fire | Image by special arrangement

The 15-storey building houses the south India headquarters of the Life Corporation of India (LIC). It is considered the first skyscraper in the country and was the tallest building in Chennai until the mid 1990s. 

Visuals of the fire and dark smoke billowing from the rooftop flooded social media on Sunday evening. A similar fire broke out at Madurai’s Super Saravana Stores in March this year also with no casualties.