Bangalore contractor, occupants are blamed for Carlton Towers tragedy

An electrical works contractor and occupants of sixth and seventh floors of Carlton Towers on Old Airport Road were responsible for the death of nine people in the fire that raged in the seven-storey building nearly two years ago, a former secretary of the owners’ association told the city police commissioner on Friday.

In a petition submitted to commissioner Shankar M Bidari, the former office-bearer of Carlton Towers Owners’ Association, Rafeeq-ur-Rahman, absolved himself and other members of negligence that allegedly resulted in the tragedy on February 23, 2009.

Rahman also accused the police of being incompetent and said the investigation into the tragedy was conducted in an improper, partial and biased manner.

He alleged that the blaze was sparked as a result of replacing copper electrical cables with aluminum by Tecnomic Marketing Services, done without permission. This was mentioned in the report submitted by the chief electrical inspectorate on March 1, 2010, he said.

The petition said that the offices on the sixth and seven floors of the building had removed smoke detectors, ignoring the safety of their staff, to run a pantry and facilitate interior decoration.

Those killed were either suffocated, or jumped off the building to their deaths from the top two floors. “The occupants of other units in the building came down to safety through the emergency exit, after hearing the alarm. But, the occupants of the sixth and seventh floor units were unaware of the fire for about two hours. The smoke was detected around 2.30 pm,” the petition said, adding that it was confirmed in a report by the fire and emergency services.
Rahman said the police randomly arrested innocent people including the then members of the committee. He said the Carlton Towers conformed to all safety requirements.