A fire broke out in Farah Towers, which houses the UCO Bank's MG Road branch, in Bengaluru on Wednesday afternoon.
Smoke was seen billowing out of the building located next to the Barton Centre at around 2:45 pm. The fire originated in the cable room of the building on the ground floor. It was immediately extinguished by people from a neighboring building. Damages were restricted to the cable room and no injuries were reported.
"People tried to jump but we asked them not to panic. We took fire cylinders from our building and extinguished the fire. We then then escorted people out. The fire engines came after we extinguished the fire," Ali, in-charge of maintenance in a building next to the spot, told TNM.
However, there was smoke on the first three floors of the building and it was cleared only after fire department officials reached the spot. A fire department official said that there were no reports of injuries among those who left the building, "Three fire engines left the Mayo Hall station and extinguished the fire. There are no incidents of injury."
Bala, an employee of Emerrxe, a company that has its office on the first floor said, "The firemen came and took care of the smoke. We all exited the building as asked."
Lakshman, a security guard at the building, said that there were 200 people inside the building on the ground, first and second floors.
Officials on ground added that they suspect short circuit is the cause of the fire.
The incident brought into focus issues of fire compliance in older buildings in the city, particularly in central areas like Brigade Road and MG Road. Fire officials told TNM that they require a 'setback' or space of 6m between the road and the building in case of a fire. "We have been issuing notices none of these buildings have setback. These are old buildings so nothing can be done and we have to fight from the road. They must have gotten NOC from earlier time since this is an old building. We will see what action can be taken. 30-40 people working in building should be ideally given fire training," ADGP Fire Services, Sunil Agarwal, said.