Fire at Bangalore high rise, no casualties

BANGALORE: A bar and a restaurant on the terrace of a three-storey (Ed correct) commercial building was gutted in a fire in the busy Residency Road here today but there was no casualty, police and fire brigade said. The incident, coming after the February 23 fire tragedy in Carlton Towers, which claimed nine lives and injured many others, triggerred panic among the people in the locality. Fifteen fire tenders doused the flames within 30 minutes, fire force sources said. According to initital reports, the fire lit for performing a religeous ritual might have caused the incident. Fire brigade said the cause of the fire was being probed. They said the bar and restaurant, built atop the Golden Towers, was an "unauthorised" construction and the entire building had no fire safety equipments. It had also not obtailed clearance from the fire department, they said. Officials of the Fire Force said a case would be booked against the owner of the building for allegedly violating fire safety norms.