According to shop-owners in the 37-year-old Public Utility Building — owned and maintained by Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike — Thursday’s fire points to what the building has been sitting on for long: imminent disaster. “The fire has exposed the faulty fire safety system in the building. The fire extinguishers, that were installed in the ground and first floors two years ago, are not working,” Abdul Aziz, president, PU Building Shop-keepers Association, said.

The shop-owners said no checks had been conducted on the extinguishers, also called sprinklers, despite requests from the association. “The building doesn’t even have proper ventilation. With the sprinklers failing to work today, we can only hope that we’ll be alive the next time a fire breaks out,” Ramesh Nayak, a frequent visitor to the building, said.

“There’s none to look after the sprinklers, that are supposed to open after the fire breaks out. There were no trials either, after they were established... We want the authorities concerned to see today’s incident as a sign and act accordingly,” Aziz said. Sriram, who runs Shantala Silks on the ground floor of the building, raised concerns about the faulty fire security system. The electrical wiring in the building is also in a bad shape, shop-owners said.

System failure
BBMP Deputy Commissioner (Revenue - Markets) Mandanna said reasons for the fire could be ascertained only after the formal inquiry. IGP (Fire Services) C Chandrashekhar said the lack of a proper suction system in the building hampered the firemen’s efforts on Thursday. “There’s no smoke escape or suction system in the building... the firemen couldn’t see even beyond two feet, due to the thick smoke. They had to work on shifts as they couldn’t withstand smoke for more than 10 minutes,” he said.

The IGP, reacting to the extinguishers’ failure, said proper fire ducts and periodic checks of the smoke and fire sensors were “recommended”.

“The extinguisher cylinders have to be changed every six months and refilled. Apart from the additional staircase, no major security enhancement measures have been taken up,” he said.

HIGHLIGHTS
The then Bangalore Municipal Corporation had laid the foundation stone for the Public Utility Building in 1964, and it was completed by 1970. After repeated recommendations from the Department of Fire Services, the Palike had built a separate emergency staircase in 2001.

Chandrashekhar said, “As the building was constructed much before advanced fire safety measures came into practice, it lacks a proper safety mechanism. If a fire breaks out in the 16th or 20th floor, extinguishing it will be an extremely tough ask because we can’t take fire tenders close to the building.”