Plastic waste intensifies fire, poses challenge for firefighters

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: At least 35 vehicles including a car were gutted in a massive fire that broke out in the premises of a plastic shredder unit in Nayandahalli in the city on Friday.

According to the locals, a thick smoke and fire was noticed around 1:40 am following which the jurisdictional police and fire officials were alerted.

Fortunately, no casualties were reported in the incident as the factory was closed in the night.

Vacant space in the factory premises was let out for parking of auto-rickshaws, goods vehicles and pushcarts at the rate of Rs 30 per night.

Due to narrow roads and streets in Gangondanahalli and Nayandahalli, owners and drivers had been parking their vehicles here, the locals told News Trail.

Most of these people belonged to financially weak families here.

Kumar, one of the senior fire fighters involved in dousing the fire, said that plastic waste was strewn in the premises and a few parked vehicles were also filled with vessels and plastic items that added fuel to the fire posing a challenge for the officials.

“The fire was massive and we called in seven fire tenders following which the fire was brought under control,” he said.

The officials carried out a swift operation and extinguished the fire before it could spread to the nearby buildings.

It took nearly six hours for the officials to put out the flames. Inspecting the spot, the Chandra Layout police suspected that the cause of fire could be an electric short circuit in the shed.

The fire might have spread due to the plastic waste inside the premises. It was learnt that the vacant space in the premises was owned by one Rizwan.

After noticing the fire, a few local residents attempted to move the vehicle out of the factory premises. However as the fire spread quickly, most of the vehicles were engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes and got destroyed, sources said.

A few families whose auto-rickshaws and goods carrier vehicles gutted in the fire were inconsolable as they claimed to have lost their source of income.

MLA for Vijayanagar constituency in Bengaluru, M Krishnappa visited the spot and inspected the damage.

Spike in fire incidents in city

This is the fourth fire incident reported in the last eight days in the city. The recent tragedies include a massive fire at a perfume unit in Ramasandra, which killed five including two minors.

Additionally, a carton manufacturing unit in Gangamma GUdi caught fire due to a short circuit on Thursday.

Similarly, a fish shop was on fire at Malleswaram on Thursday.

In light of a series of unfortunate fire accidents in Bengaluru, the fire brigade is ramping up efforts to prevent such incidents, the officials told News Trail.