2 clothing stores gutted in fire; goods worth 1 cr lost

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Valuables worth several lakhs of rupees including branded clothing materials were destroyed after a major fire broke out at two separate buildings in the city on Monday night.

In the first incident, a three-storey building complex with multiple stores in Marathahalli Police Station limits, caught fire around 11:45 pm.

It is suspected that there was a short circuit in an electric transformer nearby after which a massive fire broke out and spread across three buildings including a Louis Philippe clothing outlet.

Valuables inside the store gutted in flames. The fire team immediately reached the spot and began dousing the fire.

However, amidst the chaos, four men narrowly escaped by jumping on to the adjacent building.

It was learnt that they were the security staff who were sleeping on the terrace of the building and woke up after noticing the flames. One of the staff was rescued by fire brigade personnel using an aerial ladder.

The personnel equipped with breathing apparatus first doused the fire on the building adjacent to the store following which one crew entered the store and carefully put out the flames.

Later the second unit entered through a shutter to extinguish the fire from the inside.

According to the officials, a fireman was injured in the incident and was immediately shifted to a hospital. 

The operation continued for over two and a half hours and the fire was brought under control, the officials added. HAL police visited the spot and conducted an inspection.

Another incident at Malleswaram

Within a few minutes, another fire incident was reported at a clothing store on Sampige Road in Malleswaram Police Station limits.

The clothing materials inside the store caught fire due to a suspected spark in the electrical system.

As per the jurisdictional police, a loose connection in a computer system might have triggered the spark following a fire which spread to the entire shop. However the exact cause is yet to be ascertained, they said.

Luckily, no casualties were reported in both the incidents, and firefighters showed up very quickly to put out the fire and stop more damage.