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Friday was agonising for residents close to blazing lake

Last Updated 20 January 2018, 19:33 IST

 Residing at Embassy Pristine at the Iblur side of the smoldering Bellandur Lake, Bharathi Mani spent a tensed Friday watching the leaping flames.

"Our apartment is just round the corner from the lake and we were worried that the blaze would spread to our building," Bharathi said. Her vigil continued into the early hours of Saturday.

Moving into the apartment just three months ago, Bharathi enjoyed the view of the lake. "But on Friday, I wondered if I had made the right decision," she said, hoping that the authorities would study the issue and fix it soon.

At another apartment in the Iblur area, Daina Emmanuel sighed in relief watching the wind blow in the other direction. Unlike the fire last year, the bellowing smoke from the lake would not be choking her flat. "We had a tough time as smoke filled our apartment," she recalled.

Daina said the authorities just addressed the symptoms with minor weeding and pressing on the sprinklers to control the foam from the lake. "The fire is an indication of the scale of pollution," she said.

Close by, Hariprakash Agrawal could not escape the smell of charring toxins despite the smoke not blowing in the direction of his house. "We could smell the smoke though we had closed the doors and windows at the flat. Children kept complaining about the stench," he said.

Several meetings with civic agencies failed to solve the problem for good, Agrawal lamented.

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(Published 20 January 2018, 18:16 IST)

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