Smoke billowing out of a vacant site near the Bellandur lake has left residents of nearby apartment blocks choked for nearly three days; some of them are even being forced to take their children to hospitals for respiratory care.
The source: mounds of garbage dumped illegally in the open spaces set on fire. It took the residents two days of frantic calls to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to finally get some respite on Sunday.
It was Friday noon when the residents first noticed the fire in the heap of garbage, which, they say, included flammable material such as rubber and plastic.
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By evening, smoke had engulfed the area. “We have been unable to step out of the house for two days. We had to called the Fire Department and the BBMP several times. Fire and Emergency Services personnel came on Saturday, but said that they couldn’t reach the spot. They also said that the BBMP should stop garbage from being dumped as this was not an accidental fire,” said Seema Sharma, resident of an apartment complex near the site.
Bindu Bhatia said that her three-year-old daughter, who suffers from reactive airway disease, had to be admitted to the hospital.
“The disease has the potential to make her asthmatic. In the last four months, she has been on three courses of antibiotics, and she is on inhalers,” she said.
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The Fire and Emergency Services finally sent a vehicle to douse the fumes by Sunday evening. “Garbage had been set on fire and we have put it out,” said an official.
BBMP officials, on the other hand, claimed that they were informed about the problem only on Sunday, a claim which the residents strongly refuted.
“We got to know about the fire only on Sunday. Garbage is being dumped on the sly during the night. We will also be filing a police complaint in this regard on Monday,” said an official, under whose jurisdiction Bellandur falls.
But being forced to inhale toxic fumes from burning garbage heaps is a common problem that resurfaces every now and then, say the residents.
Fatema Imani, another resident of the apartment complex, said their eyes tear up every time they step out into the balcony.
“Open grounds on either side of our apartment are being used for illegal dumping of garbage. Trucks come and dump waste every night and this has been happening for the last two or three months. Occasionally, there have been fires as well,” she said.
The residents had managed to get brief respite when they filed a police complaint. “But the problem always stops for a while and then resurfaces,” Ms. Imani added. However, the BBMP official had no plan in store to prevent a repeat of the incident.
“We have created as much awareness as possible,” he said.