BENGALURU: Yet another fire broke out at Bellandur lake on Friday before it was extinguished by patrolling marshals with their bare hands.
The fire was noticed at 4.45pm in a vegetated area beside the water. According to a resident of the area, due to fencing around the lake, the fire brigade could not approach the area and it was left to the marshals to use branches and whatever else they could manage to find to put out the fire. On November 8, two more fires — a major one and a minor one — were detected and duly extinguished.
The repeated incidents have convinced marshals that the origin of the fires is not natural. A Marshal who patrols the lake said, “Either local villagers could be setting the dry grass on fire to make new grass grow in its place for their cattle, or some miscreants who come to the lake to smoke ganja or drink liquor might have done it.” The marshal added that after the previous fire, BDA Commissioner Rakesh Singh had agreed to provide fire fighting equipment to them.