Bantwal: Fire in telephone exchange - 2,000 landlines fall silent

Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Apr 29: Over 2,000 landline telephones and internet connections stopped functioning after fire erupted all of a sudden in the telephone exchange and telegraph sub-divisional office, opposite town police station at B C Road here on Sunday April 28 evening.

It is learnt that security personnel of the office, Ramaiah Kulal, who was at the ground floor, heard the sound of fire alarm from the building. He along with two officials of the office went running upstairs and found smoke billowing from the room housing air-conditioning unit. Kulal then rushed to bring two fire extinguishers in the office, and found that the two officials had vacated the place by then.

As the fire extinguishers had not been used since long, both of them were not functional. He then brought another unit and tried to douse the fire. Because of the heat and thick smoke, he was feeling giddy, and shouted for help. A person, working in the nearby garage, who was standing outside the building held out the torch light from his cell phone, and depending on the direction of his light and shouts, the security man could come out of the building, it is learnt. As he collapsed after reaching out, the locals shifted Kulal to a private hospital where he recovered.

The fire brigade personnel came on the scene thereafter, broke glass windows, and sprayed water, thus extinguishing fire. Till late night, connections of telephone and internet services were yet to be restored. It is learnt that several cables and units fitted to the roof of the building have either burnt down or suffered extensive damages. However, the cause of the fire and quantum of loss have not been assessed as yet.

Divisional engineer, Krishna Shyam and others took up the work of repairs with help from technicians thereafter.