BENGALURU: A major fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon at Farah Towers which houses the UCO Bank's MG Road branch among other establishments, creating a panic among the staff in the building. No casualties were reported.
The fire originated in the cable room of the building on the ground floor around 2.45 pm due to a suspected short-circuit and a thick smoke billowed out of the building. The staff and people in the building tried to jump from top floors to escape the fire.
However, they were persuaded against jumping off the building by people from neighbouring structures, who tried to douse the fire before the fire tenders arrived at the spot. Security guards of the neighbouring buildings brought fire extinguishers to control the fire and to prevent it from spreading to the neighbouring buildings.
Sheer presence of mind and swift action by the public resulted in controlling a bigger damage.
Four fire tenders were pressed into service and the fire was contained immediately. "The fire is now under control and nobody is trapped in the building. A probe has been initiated to find out whether proper fire fighting equipment was installed at the building or not," said Mr Sunil Aggarwal, ADGP, Fire and Emergency Services.
The six-storeyed building also has a coaching centre, a garment outlet and a courier office and there were about 200 people at the time of the incident.
