BENGALURU: Three persons were
charred
to death and five
injured
, two of them critically, in a fire that broke out at an illegal perfume unit at Ramasandra, 6km from Kengeri, West Bengaluru, on Sunday evening.
"A portion of the house adjacent to the building, including kitchen, windows, overhead water tank and solar panel, were also destroyed in the fire. The LPG gas cylinder, however, remained intact," fire brigade sources said.
"While some neighbours said expired perfume bottles were being emptied causing the accident, others said the expired perfume was being filled into new bottles," an officer said quoting neighbours.
Of the five injured, two are minors, who have been admitted to ICU. tnn
I don't know if the work carried out in the building was legal. All I know is some people had rented the place for a week to remove gas from perfume bottles and today was the last day (of the rental pact). So the people there were in a hurry. An autorickshaw parked outside the building to transport the perfume bottles was also completely gutted," Akash, a local who alerted the fire brigade, said.
Two of the deceased were identified as Syed Saleem, 38, a resident of Chikkabasti, and Mehaboob Pasha alias Khadar, 34, a goods auto driver from Gangondanahalli. The identity of the third deceased is yet to be established. Fire brigade sources said the deceased appeared to have locked themselves in the building out of panic.
Akash, who resides about 500 metres away, alerted fire and emergency services. "We couldn't rescue the people from the burning building as perfume bottles kept exploding like crackers," Akash said.
A water bowser and a water tanker were pressed into the operation. The fire was doused by 7pm. The fire officer said, "Three persons were charred to death inside the building. The injured were rushed to the burns ward at Victoria hospital ."
The five injured including two minors, who had the maximum burns and were admitted to the ICU. The other three injured sent to the high-dependency units (HDUs). The injured are Reehan, 10, Sajid Pasha, 15, Irfan, 30, Afroz, 25, and Allabaksh, 35, Dr Yogishwarappa, head of the department of plastic surgery, said, "The patients are being stabilised. The minors and Irfan have developed inhalation burns."
"We are taking a complaint from neighbours. If they refuse to file a complaint, we will take a suo motu case and investigate the incident," the fire officer said. "We've identified building owner as Vittal, a resident of Chikkabasti. We'll know more details after questioning Vittal," he said.
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