A massive fire broke out in a three-storey building in DJ Halli's Sugar Mandi, East Bengaluru, on Monday evening, police said.
Constructed on a 20x40 plot, the building stocked barrels and containers of paint thinner, polish, varnish and glues used in the furniture fabrication, a local resident said.
Twelve fire tenders are at work to douse the blaze that broke out around 6 pm and continued to rage even after 11.30 pm. The second floor and a shed on the terrace are still ablaze. Since the locality is thickly populated and the roads are narrow, firefighting from the adjacent structures proved quite a task.
Firefighters have evacuated local residents and are drilling holes in the adjacent structures to access the building on fire. At the time of going to press, firefighters didn't come across any casualty.
The cause of the fire remains unclear but firefighters suspect a short circuit.
A local resident said the building housed a furniture fabrication unit where several people worked. The factory closes by 6 pm and all the employees leave. Local BBMP officials and the police are looking into the factory's trade licence and registration certificates and whether the building owner complied with fire safety regulations.
The DJ Halli police have registered a case.