Bangalore:
The new year seems to have begun on a fiery note. After a hardware shop in Yelahanka caught fire on Sunday, on Monday night, it was a cotton willow, coir and rubber waste processing units in Okalipuram that went up in flames. The estimated loss at the units was around Rs 10 lakh.
Fire brigade officials said the exact cause of the fire was not known, but it could be due to lack of proper safety measures in the storage area. The first incident had occurred due to a short circuit.
According to the owners, they had shut the unit around 9 pm and left for home, but within minutes they received a call about the fire. When they reached the spot, they called the fire brigade, but it was
too late.
"I was on my way home after closing the factory at 9 pm. I got a call from someone who lives nearby to tell me there was a fire. I rushed back, but there was nothing I could do, so I called the fire brigade," said Jaffar, owner, Khalandar cotton willow factory.
An official at the scene said that though they still don't know what caused the fire, they suspect that it might have happened because of a short circuit. " There was not a single fire fighting device in any of the factories," he said.
Because of the small lane, officials struggled to reach the spot, but couldn't reach on time. It took them more than 2 hours to finally control the fire to stop it from spreading to other buildings. On the other hand, neighbours alleged that it was the over-storage that caused the fire. "They store too much raw material there.
Only if they had kept some space vacant, it wouldn't have happened," said Ramesh, a neighbour. Jaffar added, "We don't know how it happened, but we suspect it could have been a short circuit." He refused to comment on the over-storage.
Ramesh, Divisional Fire Officer said, "We got the call by 9.05 pm and we rushed to the spot. But we had to struggle to reach there, since it's a small lane. We had to use 13 fire tenders to control the fire. The total loss has yet to be determined, and will be done later today." Other factory owners refused to comment.