BENGALURU: Bellandur lake caught fire at two places yet again on Thursday evening. The fires were doused by late evening after a joint operation by the fire department and the Army.The incident occurred just three days after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had taken stock of the earlier incident of fire and directed 99 apartments around the lake to install sewage treatment plants (STP).
According to Sonali Singh, a resident of an apartment near the lake, yellowish-white smoke was seen over the lake around 3.30pm on Thursday. The smoke seemed to appear from the same spot where the earlier fires had occurred. The smoke stopped after about half an hour.However, it again started to increase and by 5.30pm the amount of smoke had considerably increased and flames were visible, Singh said. “Three fire tenders arrived on the spot and by 7 pm they had doused the fire,” she said.
Basavanna C, Chief Fire Officer, Bengaluru, said two different locations of the lake had caught fire - one of them was the same location that had caught fire last month and the other one was on the southern part of the lake. About 15 members of the Fire Department were joined by an equal number of Army personnel. Equipped with three fire tenders, the team split into two and went to both the locations of the fire.
“At the location of the earlier fire, flames had begun at 2-3 spots, but they did not cover large areas. Using our boat, we pumped water from the lake to douse the fires,” he said. At the other location, however, the personnel found the task much tougher. “The area was so inaccessible that no vehicles could get there. In addition, our feet were sinking into the ground,” he added.
The personnel managed to reach the spot by first taking a different route via Sarjapur Road, and then proceeding on foot. They had to hold on to branches of trees to reach the spot and then used branches to beat the flames, as they could not get water to the location. The Army personnel continued to spray water even after the fire was doused as a precaution measure.The NGT has set February 28 as the date for its next hearing on the lake.