BENGALURU: A 40-year-old commercial complex with over 100 small-sized shops near Chickpet Metro Station was gutted in a suspected short circuit fire on Wednesday. No casualties have been reported in the incident. More than 60 shops are said to have been gutted. The fire broke out in Lakshmi Commercial Complex located on Kumbarpet Main Road in NT Pet.
The Fire Department deployed more than 14 fire tenders after the control room received a call around 7.30 am. Even though the fire was brought under control within five hours, operations went on till 3 pm. Fire tenders had a tough time to reach the spot due to the narrow lanes.
The fire tenders had to park almost 500 meters away from Lakshmi Complex. The fire men had to use oxygen cylinders to fight fire. Hardware shops, fancy stores, plastic items shop, cloth stores, stationary shops, gift shops, bangle stores, readymade garments shops were either on rent or lease in the complex.
“The fire broke out in the hardware godown which is on the ground floor. The godown is said to be owned by Ravi Enterprises who took the premises for rent just a fortnight back,” said an officer. Uday B Garudachar, MLA, Chickpet said the exact cause of fire needs to be found to prevent such incidents in future.
Naveen Kumar, owner of Bharath Fancy Store on the first floor of the commercial complex, said that they are doing business in the complex for the last 30 years. “We have about 12 shops in the complex and all of them have been gutted. The complex is owned by one Vinod and his brothers. I got to know about the fire around 7.30 am,” he said.