Bengaluru basement fire: Man tries to jump, hurt

BENGALURU: A 25-year-old man was injured as he tried to jump to another building after a fire broke out in the basement of his residence in Malleswaram 4th Cross on Friday morning.
According to fire department officials, the incident occurred at 4.15am when fire broke out in the basement of the house where two cars were also parked. It is suspected that the blaze was caused by a short circuit.A Nissan Terrano and Hyundai i20, which were parked in the basement, caught fire in no time.
Smoke engulfed the area within 15 minutes. House owner Rajesh Doshi, who was sleeping, rushed out of the house shouting for help. Neighbours who woke up alerted fire officials around 4.40am. In a few minutes, a fire vehicle from High Grounds station arrived and doused the flames.
Rajesh's wife Jayanthi and son Bhavin were sleeping on the first floor of the building. Bhavin alerted his mother and asked her to go to terrace, but he couldn't follow her as thick black smoke had engulfed his room by then. Bhavin, who was unable to breathe, rushed to the balcony and tried to jump to the terrace of the next house, but fell and fractured his leg.
Fire officials said he was shifted to a private hospital where he underwent surgery. Rajesh, who is a pharmaceutical distributor, told TOI his son is out of danger but is still under treatment.