Bengaluru: An accidental fire that erupted in a pile of garbage near labourers’ sheds close to Hosa Lake at Kudlu Gate early Friday gutted around 13 makeshift shelters and a mini goods vehicle. Segregated waste stored in the area was also destroyed. Officials confirmed that no casualties were reported.Police said labourers from West Bengal and Assam were staying in sheds built on land owned by four persons, a property currently locked in a court dispute. The residents were living in two partitions, one of which was used by scrap collectors to sort dry waste. Preliminary investigation indicates the fire began around 5am and spread quickly through the cluster of sheds.Fire and emergency services received the first alert at about 5.15am from R Shiva Kumar Iyer, a civil engineer who lives nearby. Iyer said he noticed a small flame roughly half a kilometre from his home. “By 5.10am, the fire had spread rapidly and thick smoke was visible. I heard people screaming and called the emergency services, who asked me to share the location and photos,” he said.Iyer recalled hearing a loud explosion followed by a series of blasts similar to firecrackers around 5.30am. When he reached the site about 15 minutes later, a water tanker had arrived and officials stopped residents from entering as the blasts continued. The dry waste had been packed in gunny bags, and the labourers managed to evacuate on their own.A senior police officer dismissed rumours that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were staying in the sheds, saying the occupants had identity proofs from Assam and West Bengal. He said a few small cylinders weighing less than 5kg exploded in the blaze. “There is no possibility of a short circuit as the fire started from the garbage. The labourers first tried to douse it themselves, which delayed the arrival of fire personnel,” he said. Parappana Agrahara police have registered a fire accident case.
