fire

At Beyond Carlton, we understand the trauma that fire accident victims and their families go through. It takes a huge effort to overcome the pain, grief and stress for both the victim and the immediate family.Recognizing this Beyond Carlton has decided to offer a free counseling service as a means to reach out and hand-hold those who themselves have been, or are living with people affected by a fire-related tragedy.The process of recognizing and accepting shocking and extremely difficult situations is a slow painful one. With a counselor, it is possible to feel less alone, and more willing to look…

The people of Basapura, a growing neighbourhood in Electronic City, face a serious health hazard as tons of mixed waste including plastic are burnt every day, right in the heart of a residential area. The garbage dump that is set to fire everyday. Photo courtesy: Basapura residents At the root of this is an open area surrounded by many apartment complexes & major offices which has been converted into a dumping yard. The piles of garbage deposited here are set to fire everyday, creating thick smoke. The fire is usually seen in the wee hours of dawn and again in…

Since the noon on Friday, Oct 21st, smoke continues to billow from the encroached land next to Bellandur lake, where an unofficial waste-sorting facility has mushroomed, where construction debris is dumped day in day out and where mixed waste from various apartments is dumped in broad daylight. It is clear that this has been created by burning rubber from construction debris, the plastic present in mixed waste and low-value dry waste from the waste sorting facility, in Bellandur ward 150, Kariyama Agara area. What are BBMP officials, the police and fire departments, our elected officials and others doing? Are we…

Many incidents in the city in the past have proven that the fire emergencies in Bangalore do not get timely help. As the city saturates, the worry of fire and emergencies also mounts, because of the increasing skyscrapers and congested areas. The lacunae in the fire services are usually attributed to shortage of stations. And why is the shortage? Because, the Fire Department doesn’t have enough land inside the city. Explaining the shortfall, Om Prakash, Director General of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services Department, says that finding land to build a fire station is the biggest challenge. Funds and government…

There was a major fire in Kleen Pack, a plastic factory off Bannerghatta Road, early morning on January 30th. I was leaving for my morning walk along with my wife at 5 am on the day, when I noticed black smoke rising up in the sky. Abandoning our walk, we rushed to the direction of smoke to check what was happening. A lot of plastic/synthetic raw materials were stored in the factory's premises and these were on fire.The factory manufactures plastic bags and is located along Arekere Bannerghatta road that leads to L&T South City.By the time we reached, the…

In the first half of 2011 alone, 1172 fire cases were reported in Bengaluru (BBMP) limits, says a top Karnataka fire department official. Following the High Court's ruling on a PIL filed by the Beyond Carlton group, the state government issued a notification on July 7 this year. The notification mandates co-ordination between BBMP and the state's Fire and Emergency Services department to check for fire safety in high rises.High rises (buildings with height above 15 m) are supposed to abide by safety norms of BBMP's building bye-laws, RMP (Revised Master Plan) and NBC (National Building Code). Unlike earlier, the…

Fire broke out in Uphaar Cinema in New Delhi on 13 June 1997, while screening a matinee show of the movie, Border. 59 movie goers lost their lives because the theatre didn't have adequate fire escape facilities. Ten years later, memories of that day still haunt the survivors. Chief Fire Officer and Senior Supervising Officer, Bangalore, N U Erappa says cinemas are supposed to provide four and a half metres of space around the building so that in case of fire, fire trucks would be able to enter the premises and put it out. In many theatres, this area is…