Fire breaks out at commercial building, no casualties reported

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A four-storeyed commercial building in Banaswadi was completely destroyed after a massive fire broke out in the early morning hours of Monday.

According to the police, no casualties have been reported but valuables including furniture were gutted in the fire.

Speaking to News Trail, jurisdictional police said that the matter was reported by a local resident during the wee hours of Monday. The building located near Outer Ring Road housed a furniture showroom on the ground floor, a coaching center on the second floor and a private IT company on the third and fourth floors.

As per the police, the entire stock of the furniture showroom was reduced to ashes, causing a huge loss. The fire then spread to a coaching centre and the software company on the fourth floor.

"Since it was Deepavali and a Sunday, not many people were present in the building. The firefighters rushed to the spot and doused the flames," said the police and later added that they also rescued two security guards trapped inside the building.

The cause of the fire is expected to be a short circuit but the exact reason is yet to be ascertained by the fire officials. Sources added that a transformer in front of the shop was completely burnt.

The building was owned by a person named Shankar, who had been renting it out for the past five years. In his statement to the police, he stated that he reached the spot as soon as the locals informed him of the fire breakout.

He claimed to have suffered a loss of Rs 7 to 8 crores due to the fire damage. Police and fire officials are inspecting the spot to ascertain the exact cause of the fire breakout. Further investigation is underway.