A fire broke out in the prasadam preparation centre of the Sri Kalahasteeswara temple in Srikalahasti, Tirupati district, reportedly after a gas leak at the facility, which stands beside the southern tower of the shrine. It came while laddus, vadas and anna prasadam were being readied for the deity; the centre handles the temple's food offerings and the sanctified meals served to devotees.
Fire personnel rushed to the spot on receiving information and launched operations to bring the blaze under control. Fire safety tools and a fire engine were pressed into service to douse the flames. The temple was sealed off for the time being while officials began looking into what caused the leak and the fire that followed.
As a precaution, electricity to the complex was cut so that devotees in the mandapams around the shrine would not face inconvenience or danger. No casualties have been reported so far, though that detail is yet to be confirmed independently. The incident reportedly caused panic among devotees who were at the temple when the flames broke out.
The temple's executive officer, Venkateswarlu, and its chairman, Kotte Sai Prasad, inspected the affected centre afterwards. The administration said steps were under way to make the facility safer, and one account said work at the kitchen had been halted for now.
The accounts diverged, however, on what a halt meant for the day's rituals. Temple officials, in another account, maintained that there would be no impact on preparing the naivedyam, the offerings for the deity, or on the distribution of anna prasadam, the sanctified food. The discrepancy left the status of the day's anna prasadam for pilgrims unclear.
Neither account gave an estimate of the losses at the centre or said how long any suspension would last, nor did they say whether equipment would have to be replaced. Officials indicated that the cause of the leak and the fire was still under investigation. The facility was described both as a prasadam preparation centre beside the southern tower and as the temple kitchen, or potu, while the shrine was named in the accounts as the Sri Kalahasteeswara temple and as the Mukkanti temple.
Questions that remained open included the extent of the damage, the duration of any suspension and whether anna prasadam would be distributed to devotees as usual. Officials did not give a timeline in the accounts available, and the temple has not said when the centre would resume full operations.
(Compiled from media reports with the help of our in-house AI tools, and edited by our desk)