Major fire at shoe factory

A major fire broke out at a synthetic footwear factory at Nayandahalli Junction, near Mysore Road, on Sunday evening. All the materials in the factory were gutted.

Around 4 pm, a few residents of Nayandahalli spotted smoke emanating out of the window of the ground floor workshop of the factory in a private building. The local residents peeped inside the window and found that a fire had broken out.

Girish Kumar, an eye-witness, said, “We saw that the fire had originated in the false ceiling of the ground floor and was spreading in the office. So, we immediately called the fire department.”

As many as 11 fire engines, along with 60 personnel, rushed to the scene of the incident from Banashankari, Mysore Road, Jayanagar and Rajajinagar fire stations. They struggled to put out the fire for the next three hours.

A fire official said, “Since it was a holiday, no one was present in the workshop. Therefore, there was no loss of life. We suspect that the reaction between adhesives and other highly inflammable chemicals may have caused the fire.”

The fire officials are not sure whether J Suvarna, the owner of the shoe manufacturing unit, had the required permission from the fire department to set up the unit in the area.

While the fire department claims that they reached the spot in 18 minutes, local residents say that the fire personnel were delayed by almost one hour. Hence, there was maximum damage.