Five employees sleeping inside a bar and restaurant in the busy and congested Kalasipalyam area of Karnataka’s Bengaluru were killed in a fire that broke early on Monday, officials said.
Police said the fire started at the Kailash Bar and Restaurant located in the Kumbara Sangha Hostel building in the heart of the city at around 2.30am and three fire engines were pressed into service after they received a complaint.
Fire brigade personnel retrieved the charred bodies of the victims after dousing the fire by 4am. The bodies were sent to the state-run Victoria Hospital for an autopsy.
The dead have been identified as Swami (23), Prasad (20), Mahesh (35), all from Tumakuru; Manjunath (45), who hails from Hassan; and Keerthi (24), a native of Mandya.
“The cause of the fire is unknown,” Bengaluru’s deputy commissioner of police (West) MN Anucheth said. “Short circuit is suspected to have sparked it,” he added.
New agency IANS reported that fire and smoke were seen emanating from the bar on the ground floor of the building in the crowded vegetable market area. It cited witnesses as saying the alcohol bottles and other inflammable items stored in the premised fuelled the fire and gutted it.
{{/usCountry}}New agency IANS reported that fire and smoke were seen emanating from the bar on the ground floor of the building in the crowded vegetable market area. It cited witnesses as saying the alcohol bottles and other inflammable items stored in the premised fuelled the fire and gutted it.
{{/usCountry}}“We have registered a case of criminal negligence amounting to culpable homicide against bar owner RV Dayashankar, who obtained the trade and liquor licences to run it,” Anucheth was quoted as saying by IANS.
Bengaluru mayor Sampath Raj, who inspected the burnt bar, told reporters that he had ordered an inquiry to find out why the victims were sleeping in the premises after downing the shutters after 1am.
The mayor said it was a complete violation of rules to allow the workers to reside on the premises.
“In such cases, permission has to be sought from the labour department, which was not done,” he said.
“We are trying to trace the owner because he has flouted multiple rules, including a lack of fire safety measures. We will definitely bring him to book,” Raj said.
A compensation of Rs 5 lakh has been decided for the families of the deceased, he added.
Raj said since a fire broke out in a restaurant in Mumbai a crackdown on pubs, bars and restaurants that flouted fire safety laws had been undertaken. He was referring to the fire at a restaurant that sparked a deadly blaze in Mumbai’s Kamala Mills area, killing 14 people on December 29 last year.
“So far, we have issued notices to around 150 establishments,” he said.
The Karnataka government allowed pubs, bars, restaurants and eateries in the cosmopolitan city to remain open till 1am almost a year ago to cater to the thousands of tourists and employees of software firms and call or data centres, which operate 24x7 through the year.
Mohammad Abrar, who owns a tea stall nearby, said the Kumbara Sangha Hostel is used by men working in the surrounding shops in the market.
“All those who died were regular customers of mine,” Abrar said.
According to him, the labourers had worked out a deal with the owner to live inside the Kailash Bar and Restaurant.
(With agency inputs)