School children and other occupants of a commercial building had a narrow escape as a fire broke out in a furniture shop on the ground floor of the three-storey structure on Ganganagar main road on Monday morning.
The staff, owners and other occupants of the adjacent shop noticed thick smoke coming out and alerted the fire department before evacuating the building. A few children and staff of the Radhakrishna English school, situated on the first and second floors of the building, ran out to safety.
Eight fire tenders rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control after a four-hour operation. Fire officials have sought the help of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company to ascertain the cause of the fire.
Furniture, cushions and sofas were stored in the basement of the building, which was gutted in the fire. Furniture, goods and materials worth over ₹12 lakh were gutted.
Police rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area to enable dousing the fire. Hundreds of curious onlookers gathered at the spot. Traffic was disrupted for some time.
The building housed many commercial shops. The fire was contained before it could spread to other parts of the building, officials said.
“Our main concern was the safety of the occupants of the building, especially the children,” Regional Fire Officer Devraj said.
The shop did not have any ventilation. Though the fire was not a major one, smoke engulfed the shop making it very difficult to douse the blaze due to lack of ventilation, Mr. Devraj said, adding that there were no safety measures in the building.
G.M. Ravindra, Joint Commissioner (East), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), said that a case would be booked against the building-owner for violating the building plan and renting out the basement, which is meant for parking, to a commercial establishment.
The BBMP is set to start a special drive in February to vacate commercial establishments operating illegally out of basements meant for parking, Special Commissioner D. Randeep told The Hindu. He said zonal officials had already begun issuing notices to such establishments, and they would be forcefully vacated if they haven’t voluntarily done so by February.