Supermarket in Bengaluru's Langford Road gutted in fire, no casualties reported

A supermarket on Langford Road near Nanjappa Circle in Richmond Town caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday.

While no casualties were reported, the fire charred grocery and other materials at Family Shopping Mart in the three-storey Shantharam Centre. The fire also kept residents of both Langford Road and Berlie Street outside their homes until it was brought under control.

The fire had started in the building’s ground floor and mezzanine where the supermarket was located and was first noticed by Sabir Khan, a Berlie Street resident and chartered accountant, whose house is just behind the building.

Khan was asleep at home at 2 am when he had difficulty breathing. He woke up and realised his house was filled with smoke, which he noticed was drifting from the supermarket. Khan rushed out of his house with his family members, including his aged parents. Khan called fire and emergency services and reported the fire.

Hemanth Kumar K, District Fire Officer, South, rushed to the spot with a team of fire personnel from the South and Jayanagar fire stations and doused the flames after a four-hour struggle. An electrical short circuit was suspected to have caused the fire.

Kumar told DH that the fire services control room received a call at 2.10 am. “We reached the spot within six to seven minutes. Three water bowsers and four tankers were used to put out the flames by 6 am,” he said.

Owners of the supermarket orally told the Ashoknagar police that the supermarket had goods worth Rs 3 crore. The building also houses a chartered accountants' office.

As a precautionary measure, residents on the building’s penthouse and neighbouring residents were asked to get out of their homes until the fire was brought under control.

Around 130 residents from both the streets stayed out of their homes until early morning. “We were worried about the aged residents, but officials stopped the flames from spreading to the entire building and adjacent buildings,” Khan said.