Close shave for hundreds after fire in MG Road building

Hundreds of students had a harrowing time after a fire broke out in a multi-storey building on the busy MG Road in central Bengaluru on Wednesday.

While there were no casualties, the sight of thick smoke drifting upstairs panicked the students as well as other occupants of Farah Towers, a commercial building which houses a bank branch, an ATM kiosk, a courier service and a computer coaching institute among other establishments.

It all started with a small fire, accompanied by thick smoke, erupting in the electrical console on the ground floor of the building around 2.50 pm, burning fibre cables and plastic electrical items. The fire control room received a distress call four minutes later, and three fire tenders rushed to the spot from the Ashoknagar fire station within 10 minutes.

At least 250 students were attending classes on the second and third floors when the fire broke out. The staff of a UCO Bank located right next to the console were the first to evacuate. Though there were two fire extinguishers, the bank staff could not operate them. They were eventually used by firefighters 10 minutes later. Nothing much happened on the upper floors for the next few minutes.

But as the thick smoke made its way up, students on the second and third floors panicked. Some of them opened the windows or smashed the windowpanes to let the smoke out while a few others ran to the terrace, screaming for help. But most of the students just ran helter-skelter, taking the stairs and almost causing a stampede. Such was the panic that some people used ropes to climb down the building from the Barton Centre side.

Many students cried as they ran to safety. "We were on the second floor and all of a sudden, thick smoke started drifting up," said Shyamala, a student. "We just panicked."

Sushmitha and Yeshaswini L, students of Embedded In C and IoT, said: "We were attending the second session after lunch when the fire broke out near the electrical meters on the ground floor."

Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Ramakrishna, who rushed to the spot with a nine-member team, suspected a short circuit.

Farah Towers is an old building located opposite the Rangoli Metro Art Center. Except for two fire extinguishers, it neither had fire alarm systems nor smoke detectors, which are mandatory fire safety equipment, Ramakrishna said. "We have collected the samples and handed them over to the Electrical Inspectorate for further analysis," he added.