Fire was waiting to happen

Fire was waiting to happen
Bangalore, DHNS:
The 35-year-old Jayanagar Shop-ping Complex whose gro-und and first floors were ravaged by a fire on Friday night, hardly had any fire safety measures.

The fire destroyed property and shops worth Rs 1.5 crore. About a hundred shops were reduced to ashes and 50 families were virtually on the streets.

As the victims went about picking up what was left of their thriving businesses on Saturday, the shopping complex stood as a mute testimony to how vulnerable were the City’s high-rises to disasters like this.

According to shop owners, no fire safety measure existed until recently. “Recently some work began outside the complex, but it was left incomplete,” said Ramesh, a shop owner.

The havoc could have been controlled, had enough fire tenders arrived in time on Friday night. “We just had two fire tenders. The arrival of other fire tenders was delayed by at least 45 minutes and the fire spread fast, rendering fire-fighting difficult,” a police source here told Deccan Herald.

The huge stocks maintained by textile shops in the complex literally added fuel to the fire.

“Considering the busy weekend, they had brought a huge quantity of clothes which were lying in front of the shops on the first floor. Unfortunately, the fire broke out from one of these shops,” said police sources.

Above all, the inefficient fire brigade and vintage vehicles of the department too contributed to the dam-age.

Even after the fire was brought under control, hap-hazard dumping of veget-ables and fruits in front of shops posed huge problems to rescue workers. The shop owners also blamed dangling electric wires and poor quality of electric work for the mishap.