Bengaluru apartment complex fire: Next-door son-in-law recalls failed scramble to enter burning flat

Eighty-two-year-old Lakshmidevi had come to see her 59-year-old daughter Bhagya Rekha when a fire erupted in the latter’s flat at the Ashrith Aspire apartment complex on Tuesday.

Lakshmidevi lived in Uttarahalli and came on Monday to meet her daughter, who had just returned from a US trip with her husband, Bheemsen Rao. Except for the two women, there was no one in flat number 210 when the blaze started. Rao was in flat number 211, where the couple’s younger daughter Preethi lives with her husband, Sandeep.

Speaking to news reporters on Wednesday, Sandeep recalled the exact moment he, his wife and father-in-law learnt about the fire. His phone had rung and it was Rekha on the other line. In a panicky voice, she told him that a fire had broken out in the living room of her flat.

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Still on the line with Rekha, Sandeep broke the news to Rao who, without waiting for a second, made a dash for the flat but found the main door shut. He tried to push the door open. Then in a desperate bid, he kicked the door hard. Sandeep joined him and both of them broke the door open.

Rao tried to barge in but was beaten back by licks of flame that burnt his hand, head and legs. “When we broke open the door, we saw the fire raging in the living room,” Sandeep said. They could hear the women crying for help but saw nothing but blistering flames, he added.

Rao and Sandeep scrambled to enter the burning flat, but neighbours dragged them out for their own safety.

Originally from Ballari, the family has been living in Bengaluru since 2012. Rao and Rekha’s elder daughter and son-in-law, settled in the US, were unable to come to Bengaluru for the final rites due to visa issues.

Begur police have opened a case of unnatural deaths based on Sandeep’s complaint.

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