5 die as fire breaks out at B’luru pub
Bengaluru: Five employees of a bar- cum- restaurant were charred to death when a major fire broke out at Kumbaara Sangha building in Kalasipalya in the early hours of Monday. They were working as waiters and cleaners at Kailash Bar and Restaurant.
In a tragic incident, five workers died after a fire broke out at a bar and restaurant at Kalasipalya Market in the early hours of Monday.
The deceased have been identified as Rangaswamy, 22, Jai Prasad, 20, and Mahesh, 35, all from Tumakuru, and Manjunath, 45, from Hassan, and Keerthi, 19, from Mandya. They were working as waiters and cleaners at Kailash Bar and Restaurant, situated on the ground floor of Kumbara Sangha building.
The fire broke out around 2.30 am when all the five were sleeping inside. Passersby noticed the fire and informed the Fire and Emergency Service personnel and Kalasipalya police, who rushed to the spot and doused the fire by 3.30 am. When they broke open the shutter and went inside looking for survivors, they found the five dead. A senior police officer investigating the case said, “Inside the gutted bar, we found one person dead near the toilet and the others inside the toilet. We assume that they had run into the toilet to escape the fire. All the liquor bottles, cookery items, cash box and showcases have been destroyed in the fire.”
He said, “Preliminary investigations indicated that cause of the fire could be a short- circuit. But nothing can be ascertained till the reports arrive. There was a gas cylinder inside which was intact, but the inverter power supply unit was completely burnt. The bar was closed around 1.30 am and the workers had locked themselves inside the bar and gone to sleep when the fire broke out.”
Two of the deceased have sustained burns, while others do not have any injuries, indicating that they might have died due to asphyxiation.