Bengaluru: A woman was among three people killed in a devastating fire that swept through a newly opened scrap warehouse on the western outskirts of Bengaluru on Sunday, police officers said.
Five people, including two boys aged 10 and 15, suffered varying degrees of burns. Two of them, including the 10-year-old, are critical. The boy suffered 62 per cent burns.
Police suspect that the warehouse employed child workers.
The warehouse was set up two weeks ago on a 30X40 site in a residential locality at Ramasandra, off Mysuru Road, and was used to scrap expired perfume bottles. Authorities are investigating if it had the necessary licences.
Investigators suspect that workers were extracting leftover perfume from the bottles when the fire broke out around 5 pm. The fire brigade received a phone call at 5.17 pm and dispatched two firefighting vehicles, an official said.
“Most of the material stored in the outlet was inflammable and aided in the quick spread of the fire. We are investigating how the fire broke out,” a police officer said.
Five people who were close to the door escaped as soon as the fire broke out but suffered burns. The three deceased were inside the warehouse and didn’t appear to have found a way out as a thick layer of smoke filled the enclosed space, the officer said.
Among the deceased was 30-year-old Saleem, who ran the warehouse; Mehboob Pasha, 32, and an unidentified woman. The bodies were so charred that rescuers struggled to lift them off the ground and send them for post-mortem.
The five injured — Sajid Pasha, 15, Rehan, 10, Afroz, 28, Irfan Pasha, 28, and Allah Baksh, 32 — have been sent to Victoria Hospital. Rehan suffered 62% burns and is critical. Another unidentified injured person suffered 50% burns. The three others suffered 10-50% burns, police said.
Among the deceased and injured victims, two were from Chandra Layout and five were from Chikka Basti, near Ramasandra.
A police officer at the site told DH that the site belonged to a man named Vittal and that Saleem had rented it recently.
“The workers appear to have been extracting chemicals when one of the bottles exploded. The fire spread rapidly, punctuated by a series of minor blasts,” he said.
Emergency services personnel are still removing the debris but police are certain that nobody has been trapped inside.