Blaze kills two in agarbathi unit

 

DEATH TRAP: Fire and Emergency Services personnel dousing the fire at an agarbathi unit at K.P. Agrahara near Magadi Road in Bangalore on Thursday.

Bangalore: Two men were charred to death and eight injured when an agarbathi manufacturing unit caught fire at Bhuvaneshwari Nagar on Magadi Road in K.P. Agrahara here on Thursday amidst an allegation that the owner had locked the main door, trapping the employees. The fire, coming a day after the blaze at a multiplex, broke out at around 9.30 a.m. At least 15 fire-tenders and 80 Fire and Emergency Services Department personnel struggled for nearly six hours to douse the conflagration.

Victims from Bihar


The dead men are Jai Singh (20) and Shoaib (35), natives of Bihar who were staying near K.P. Agrahara. Five workers — Khader, Rajesh, Bisilaiah, Karthik and Shankar — were treated for minor burns while three women employees — Latha, Veena and Chellamma — collapsed owing to asphyxiation and were admitted to hospital, Department of Fire and Emergency Services sources said. Eerappa, Chief Fire Officer (West), Department of Fire and Emergency Services, blamed the fire on negligence of the proprietor. “The fire broke out in a three-storeyed building which does not have any fire fighting equipment. Except a few ventilators, it has no windows or a backdoor for emergency exit,” he told The Hindu. The unit belongs to Ravichandra, a native of Andhra Pradesh, who has been in the business for the past several years. He had stored around 1,000 litres of highly inflammable chemicals, fumigants, aromatic accessories and other raw materials in the building, said an officer of K.P. Agrahara police station and added that the deceased Shoaib’s brother, Khader, had filed a case of negligence against the owner. Local people alleged that the owner had locked the main door of the building when the fire broke out, which prevented the trapped employees escaping. “We saw the flames and smoke and rushed to rescue them, but we were helpless,” said Raju and Kiran, autorickshaw drivers and added that they were joined in vain by passers-by. Several lakhs of rupees worth materials were stored in the building and hence the owner had locked the main door, an injured worker, who did not want to be named, told The Hindu. The agarbathi unit employs 30, of whom 10 employees were on duty. Some of them were boiling a chemical on a kerosene stove on the third floor when it caught fire. When their efforts to put out the fire went in vain, panic ensued and other employees, especially the women, tried to break open the main door. Finally it was the public who forced it open, he said. But the K.P. Agrahara police, who have registered a case against the owner Ravichandra under Section 304 A (Causing death by negligence) and Section 337 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code, denied the door was locked. “The owner himself was in the factory and helped. He has not been arrested,” K.P. Agrahara, station inspector K.B. Swamy Kumar told The Hindu.