Smoke is seen billowing from the plastic godown in Bannimantap which caught fire today.
Fire Brigade personnel are seen dousing the fire in the existence of the public.
Mysore, Oct. 19 - Plastic wastes worth Rs. 16 lakh were reduced to ashes when a fire broke out at a godown named J.S. Brothers located in a busy place on C.V. Road in Bannimantap here this morning.
It is reported that the shop belonged to one Suhail J.S. Ahmed Raza, a resident of Mandi Mohalla, who was buying plastic and other wastes from rag pickers and others to sell it to factories at places like Bangalore.
It is said that Raza, who visited the shop at about 7 am today found that everything was normal and left for home. At about 7.15 am, residents who saw smoke billowing from the shop informed Raza, who rushed to the spot and informed fire service personnel and took to dousing the fire himself with three of the four fire extinguishers which he had kept at the place but in vain.
Eight fire extinguishers from Saraswathipuram, Bannimantap and Hebbal Fire Stations, which arrived at the spot at about 7.30 am struggled for about two hours to douse the fire to prevent it from spreading to neighbouring shops and houses thus averting major tragedy.
The intensity of the fire was so severe that smoke was seen billowing from the shop even at 11.30 am. A JCB was deployed to clear the shop from plastic wastes to avoid further damage.
In a complaint lodged with N.R.Police, Raza has said that just yesterday, he had purchased wastes worth about Rs. 6 lakh which was to be dispatched to Bangalore today and added that Rs. 32,000 in cash, three small fire extinguishers, eight CCTV cameras installed at his shop were reduced to ashes due to the fire.
Meanwhile, residents of the area said that the MCC should take severe action on these shops, as chances of damage to lives and properties were more. They also said that the streets in the heavily populated area were narrow which hampers rescue operations.
Fortunately, two boys and six women, who work in the shop daily escaped as it was a Sunday, they opined.
Meanwhile, Corporator Suhail Baig said that he had given a letter to MCC Commissioner to act on illegal shops while Raza, the owner of the shop claimed that he was doing business since 2005 with permission from the MCC.
City Police Commissioner Dr. M.A.Saleem and DCP M.M. Mahadevaiah who arrived at the spot told N.R. Inspector Gajendra, V.V.Puram inspector Suryanarayana Rao, Mandi SI Keshavamurthy to write a letter to the MCC seeking eviction of such shops from the area.
It may be recalled that three people had perished in the same area when a container containing perfume burst while being opened by force with an iron rod at a godown in 2011.
