Bellandur Lake Fire: Here's everything you need to know about the blaze in Bengaluru's largest water body

The Bellandur Lake in Bengaluru is not new to fire, but it is also probably not used to 5,000 armymen working to douse this blaze. The lake in South East Bengaluru caught fire on Friday, January 19, morning and while the fire has now been put out, cooling operations are still on.

Here's how the lake caught fire and how the army had to be brought in to put out the blaze in a nutshell:

• The blaze on Bellandur Lake, which is the largest water body in the city, was noticed at around 10.30 am on Friday morning.
• Residents of the area noticed a huge cloud of smoke billowing from the lake, which is known to be dumped with sewage, construction scrap and chemical waste.
• Government agencies and defence personnel from the ASC centre were called in to put out the fire.
• No damage to life or property has been reported
• However, an army personnel was bitten by a snake while he was trying to put off the fire
• "One of our personnel was bitten by a snake while he was trying to douse off the fire as snakes and many reptiles came out due to heat. The soldier is out of danger and being treated," Major General Narpat Singh Rajpurohit, Commandant of the ASC Centre told NDTV.
• The fire department was also informed of the blaze in the evening and a fire engine was immediately deployed.
• This is not the first time that a blaze has been spotted on Bellandur Lake.
• In 2017, residents of the area had complained of toxic foam on the lake, which had later become a minor blaze.
• Such is the pollution in the lake that experts from Britain and Israel studied the issue and said that pollutants must not be drained into the lake, reported NDTV