Garbage chute in apartment catches fire; cigarette butt could be trigger

BENGALURU: As apartment complexes in the city incorporate new garbage collection measures, lack of awareness on proper disposal mechanisms could prove hazardous. On Tuesday, a 12-storey apartment on Sarjapur Road literally turned into a chimney as thick smoke billowed from it, following a fire in the building’s trash chute.

The incident occurred in block 2 of

Confident Leo Apartment

near Carmelaram. While there was no casualty or structural damage to the building, the fire and smoke triggered panic among the residents and those living in the neighbourhood. Fire-fighters rushed to the spot and contained the blaze in around 30 minutes.

Preliminary investigation revealed the fire started in the trash chute (also known as

garbage chute

) connected to the dumpster in the basement of the building. “We suspect a

cigarette butt

callously discarded into the trash chute caused the blaze,” said an official from the fire service department. Trash chutes are duct or tubes into which flat occupants can directly dump garbage bags from their respective floors, instead of physically carrying them to the basement.

At 10.45am, a resident from

the apartment

alerted fire service personnel about the fire in the apartment’s front block. The apartment has two blocks with 240-odd flats, of which 96 are occupied. “When we reached the spot, we saw thick smoke emanating from the garbage chute. We realised the fire was in its initial stages and the garbage heap was its point of origin. We pumped water into the chute for 30 minutes and doused the fire,” the official said, adding, “Usually, we suspect short circuit to be the reason behind such accidental fires. But in this case there were no electrical circuits or boards near the chute. A cigarette butt thrown into the chute might have ignited the flames.”

While the residents were evacuated from their flats, motorists and neighbours tried to make sense of all the commotion around. A resident, who did not want to be named, said: “Those were terrifying moments. Watching the building spew smoke was scary. What if the fire spread to the floors and flats through the trash chute? We had a lucky escape.”

Fire service personnel, however, pointed out that those living in apartments should not dispose anything hot or burning into the trash chute. “These chutes have been designed to ensure convenience, but they could become potential death traps, if residents are not careful.”