Fire at CSD canteen

Short circuit in lift is the suspected cause

Around 3.50 pm, thick smoke was noticed from the second floor of the three storied building. Immediately, 24 fire tenders with 100 firemen rushed to the spot. The firemen fought for nearly four hours and brought the situation under control. No casualty was reported.

Sources said, this depot is the CSD main storage house for the entire Karnataka State. It is from here the house hold items are distributed to various outlets. Crores of rupees worth household items from toothpaste to high end electronic gadgets were gutted in the accidental fire. Luckily, liquor was stacked in the adjoining building and if the fire had spread things would be worse.

The cause of the fire is zeroed in on the short circuit in the lift but the fire experts have bought time to ascertain the exact reason. Malfunction of the fire safety equipment gave a tough time to the firemen and water tank also was dry.

However, going by the time and month (closing of accounts), the fire has broke out, senior police officers are not ruling out insiders hand in causing the mishap.

They also suspect that a few workers at godown might have shifted valuables goods elsewhere and sold them to make money. They might have lit fire to the remaining less valuables goods to give a report to the government that all goods were destroyed in the fire mishap, police said.

Timely arrival

Timely arrival of the fire tenders played a major role in controlling the fire immediately. “There were allegations that the traffic police did not ensure free movement of fire tenders when a major fire broke out in Carlton Towers on February 23. An action plan was prepared as to how the police and fire departments should carry out duties in a coordinated way whenever such incident occurred. The action plan was given to both the departments.

As soon as we received the news about the fire, we banned vehicular movement from ASC Circle to Trinity Circle to facilitate for the fire tenders to reach the spot at the earliest,” said Shankar M Bidari, City Police Commissioner.

“Goods were stored in all the three floors. Fire broke out in the second floor only. Timely arrival of the fire tender and immediate action ensured that the fire did not reach out to the first floor,” said fire force director BG Chengappa.