Massive fire at Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre, loss estimated at over Rs 150 crore

Bengaluru: A fire erupted in the government-run Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre on Tuesday, gutting more than 120 labs inside the facility and causing an estimated loss of over Rs 150 crore, police said. No casualties have been reported.

BBC is a state-of-the-art translational research and entrepreneurship centre catering to all the needs of start-ups in life science.

According to the police sources, a security guard noticed the fire around 4.35 am in one of the labs on the second floor of the facility and called the fire department helpline. Three fire tenders carried out a five-hour-long operation to douse the fire.

A police source told DH that the fire was a result of either chemical overreaction or a short circuit.

“Most of the labs in the facility used ethanol for their experiments. We suspect the fire may have been caused by its overreaction,” said the officer.

According to the police, IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge was scheduled to attend the inauguration of one of the labs on Tuesday, but the fire broke out and the inauguration had to be cancelled. Later in the day, Kharge visited the facility and gathered information about the fire accident.

How did it happen?

“The accident erupted at Galore TX startup room on the second floor due to improper management of flammable solvent in their lab. All BBC startups were previously informed to not store and use any large volume of inflammable chemicals in their lab, and a separate open storage area was provided for the same,” a press statement issued by the department of IT and BT said.

According to the release, the second floor was completely gutted while extensive damage was also caused to the first and ground floors due to the interconnected HVAC lines.

“The fire severely damaged the common infrastructure of BBC, including the Bangalore Bio Bank, cleanroom facility, flow cytometry, HVAC units, AC units, among others,” said the release.

The startups that were affected include: Fermbox (3 labs), Phyxx 44 (3 labs), Ajitha prodrug (1 lab), Galore Tx (1 lab), Ikesia (1 lab), Immunitas (2 labs), and Yokogawa (1 lab).

Several other startups were also affected, including Atrimed Pharma, 4basecare, Anabio, Anava Bio, Pandorium, Oxonexe Presude Lifesciences, Zhichu, among others.