Electronic goods worth crores gutted

16 fire tenders take six hours to douse fire; no casualties reported

Electronic and electrical home appliances worth several crores of rupees were reduced to ashes when a major fire engulfed the godown of a multi-national company near Nelamangala Sunday morning.

Sixteen fire tenders, including two rescue vans, and around 85 Fire and Emergency Services personnel battled for nearly six hours to douse the fire. There were no casualties in the incident. The cause for the fire is yet to be ascertained.

LG, the electronic and electrical home appliances major, had rented the building nearly half a kilometre from Mylanahalli village, about five km  from Nelamangala. The building located on a 5.2-acre farmland is owned by a person identified as Balaji.

Electronic goods stored in this godown were supplied to various cities of South India, but there was no distribution since January 15. The premises lacked firefighting equipment and the owner had not obtained a No Objection Certificate from the Fire department. Some villagers noticed thick smoke and flames emanating from the building around 10.15 am and informed the Nelamangala police, who in turn alerted the Fire department.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot from Nelamangala by 10.30 am. More fire tenders were pressed into service when it turned out to be a major fire, B K Hampagol, Deputy Director (Technical), Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services, said.

Fire tenders from Peenya, Yeshwantpur, Rajajinagar, Hebbal, Banaswadi and other areas were sent with additional firemen. The personnel could do very little as the asbestos sheet on the roof was burning fast. They started dousing the fire from outside as they could not enter the godown. They watched the destruction of valuable goods helplessly. They managed to put off the fire completely by 4.30 pm.

“We have ruled out the possibility of an electric short circuit considering the wiring system inside the building. Refrigerators have a cooling gas (freon gas) in liquid form inside small pipes. This gas is highly inflammable and more dangerous than petrol. If this comes in contact even with a small spark, it results in fire immediately. We suspect there may have been a leakage of this gas due to the pressure created by overloading of products. But we don’t know what generated the spark. A thorough investigation will shed more light on the incident,” Hampagol said.