Fire at Shanti Nagar bus depot

Materials stored in scrap yard catch fire; no casualties but the fire once again shows how government agencies are unprepared to fight such emergencies

The scrap yard at BMTC Central Work Depot at Shanti Nagar was a blazing pile on Wednesday after materials stored in the depot caught fire. Only a week after the tragedy at Carlton Towers, the BMTC scrap yard, which stored oil filters, empty oil tanks and scrapped rubber tyres, caught fire that took fire fighters close to five hours to put out. While no lives were lost, officials are yet to ascertain the exact reason for the fire.

Rules violated

The government, which has proposed stringent safety measures for all private buildings, seems to have flouted its own rules in the scrap yard, resulting in the fire.“The scrap yard, which is close to an acre, stores material that are combustible in nature. The ideal safety measure for such a site is a ring man hydrant system, which basically means there is a water pipe running around the parameter of the compound wall. This helps the fire department to control the flames more quickly. That system is not in place here,” said J H Ravi Shankar, regional fire officer, Bangalore South Range.

Families at peril

The scrap yard fire filled the 90-odd KSRTC and BMTC employees’ quarters buildings in its vicinity with smoke. “At around 12.15 pm in the afternoon, we saw a lot of smoke and had no clue. The fire brigade rushed in at around 12.30 pm and started operations,” says Janakamma, whose husband works with the department as a mechanic. The residents allege that they had spoken to officials about the scrap yard and the danger it posed to the houses that line it, but officials as usual failed to listen. The yard had over 100 empty oil tanks and hundreds of oil filters, both of which have sizeable quantity of residual oil, and the danger is compounded by the electrical line that runs overhead. “Though our husbands work with the department, we are absolutely helpless,” said one lady.The officials at BMTC have promised to look into all aspects of the matter. Arun Chakravarthy, director-security, Vigilance and Environment, BMTC, said the department would look into the matter and set right any irregularities. “We do not store this much scrap usually. But from what my officials say, there have been few takers for the waste material,” he said.