At least five persons including four senior citizens died in a fire which broke out in a 15-storey building in Mumbai’s Tilak Nagar area on Thursday evening. The fire broke in one of the flats on the tenth floor of Sargam Society building to another flat on the floor. Another two persons including a fireman were injured in the blaze. The fire has been brought under control and cooling down operation is underway.
According to officials, initially, the fire was minor but later it escalated to a Level 3 (major) fire as it spread. The fire brigade sent six fire engines and six water tankers to the spot. The firefighting system was not working properly.
The fire brigade team rescued six people and admitted them to the nearby Rajawadi Hospital. As per senior doctor at the civic-run hospital, five of them succumbed to burn injuries. The deceased were identified as Sunita Joshi, Bhalchandra Joshi, both 72, and Suman Shrinivas Joshi, 83. The condition of two injured, including a fireman, is stable.
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The civic official said that Sunita Joshi is the mother of Sanjay Joshi, in-charge of the Vikhroli police station. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained as yet and the rescue operation is still underway.
According to local residents, indiscriminate parking of vehicles in the area delayed the arrival of fire brigade tankers and equipment. Reportedly, angry residents lodged a protest and plan to lodge a complaint against the builder. Residents claimed that the builder had run away and a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire department was not obtained.
This is the fourth incident of major fire in Mumbai reported in the past four days. Two fires were reported on Sunday. A major fire broke out at the basement of ground plus seven New Beauty Center at Khar around 10 am wherein no casualties were reported. Following this, around 4 pm, another fire broke out at a cloth factory of Kandivali’s Damu Nagar where four people were killed after a structure of the cloth factory collapsed due to the fire.
The incident took place just two days before the first anniversary of the Kamala Mills fire last year in which 14 people had died.