DKS, Ramalinga visit gutted bus workshop

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar accompanied by Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy paid a visit to take stock of the damage caused by the fire at a bus workshop in Veerbhadra Nagar in Bengaluru on Monday.

In the accident that occurred earlier in the day at around 11:30 am, 19 buses had been gutted. However, no one had died in the tragedy. One Srinivas who owned the shop is on the run.

The fire broke out when welding work was being done on a private transport bus. The flames then spread to other buses, diesel in the buses making the inferno even more intense.

Burning rubber from the bus tires caused a plume of smoke to be seen over long distances. During his visit, Shivakumar told mediapersons that the facility hadn’t taken the necessary precautions to deal with fire accidents, adding that an investigation would be ordered into the incident.

“I could see a fire extinguisher there but it is too small. When such big works are being carried out, they should have been very cautious. By God’s grace, no casualty has happened,” he said.

“We’ll order an inquiry on this,” he added.

The Deputy CM said that he didn’t want to make pre-emptive statements, adding that he would comment more on the issue only when an inquiry was completed and he knew more about the issue.

4 fires in just over 2 months

Bengaluru Urban district has witnessed four fires in the past two-and-a-half months.

On Saturday, a fire broke out at the Haj Bhavan in Thanisandra, where no one died but it caused a damage of Rs 3 crore. A blaze at a cracker shop in Anekal had killed 14 on October 7.

On August 11, a blaze at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) premises injured nine persons and a chief engineer succumbed to his injuries eventually.