Nine executives, including two employees of JDA Software and three people from investment banking firm Chesapeake, including its India chief, Siddhartha Padam, died in a fire that broke out at the Carlton Towers office highrise in Bangalore on Tuesday afternoon. Three women are among the dead.
Another 59 were injured, 35 of whom are in a serious condition. Nineteen are in intensive-care.
Firemen rescued 200 people from the seven-storeyed building on the Old Airport Road. Most of those evacuated, including the dead, were taken to the nearby Manipal Hospital. Seven of the victims were brought dead; two others died a little later in the hospital.
Three of the dead — Siddharth Padam, Rajesh Subramaniam and Akhil Uday — were working with the Chesapeake Group, investment and merchant bankers, whose office was on the seventh of the building (Room 704).
JDA Software, whose office was on the sixth floor (Room 605), lost two employees, Surabhi Joshi and Sunil Iyer. Joshi, an MBA from IIM-Bangalore, is the daughter of a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh.
Benzie Snell Kumar, 29, and a mother of two, was also among the deceased.
More From This Section
Carlton Towers houses many commercial offices and establishments, including around 25 information technology companies. Unconfirmed reports also said the fire broke out in an IT company on the third floor and spread rapidly. Some casualties occurred when a few people jumped out of the building in panic, witnesses said. People broke window panes with chairs and bare hands to get some ventilation.
D G Chengappa, director, fire services, said 16 fire tenders had been pressed into service. V S Acharya, the state government’s home minister, has oredered a detailed investigation.
According to Manipal Hospital, the identities of the dead were ascertained from identity cards and name plates. The bodies were later shifted to Victoria and Bowring Hospital for autopsy.