JOIN USFire dept owns up lapses
The Fire Department officials are said to have admitted to the negligence by their personnel which caused the death of an employee of an apparel factory at Yeshwantpur during a mock drill Friday afternoon.
The interim report submitted by the senior officials to the Home department on Saturday stated that the callousness of its personnel had led to the fall of the welfare officer while she was climbing down the building, sources told Deccan Herald.
The report said stern action would be taken against the officers, if found guilty after the departmental inquiry, it is learnt. N U Eerappa, the chief fire officer, who was in-charge of the mock drill on Friday said: “Rope racing was not included in the list of events chalked out for the mock drill. We were about to conclude the activities. Suddenly, some people demanded us to include the rope race. I think that was the biggest mistake,” he added.
“There could be some manufacturing defect in the rope,” he said.
Blaming the officers for no fault of theirs is disheartening, he added. However, Director General of the Fire department A R Infant refused to divulge the details of the interim report to the media.
He said Varadarajan, the chief fire officer of Mangalore, had been appointed to inquire into the incident and submit a detailed report within a week. The RMC Yard police, who are investigating into the incident, could not interrogate the employees of the factory as a majority of them went to the victim Nalini’s hometown in Gauribidanur, where she was cremated.
“We could talk to only a few staffers as there was tension on the factory premises when the workers demanded that Nalini’s body should be kept there to pay tributes,” a police inspector said.
Village pays homage
At Chittavalahalli in Gauribidanur taluk, Nalini’s parents, Ramakrishnareddy and Lakshmidevamma were inconsolable.
The residents were in shock as the young girl from their village, who had joined the factory as welfare officer a year ago, was no more.
More than 300 employees from the factory had come in a bus to the village to pay homage.