Navi Mumbai: Massive fire breaks out at Kharghar hill; watch video

It took around 7 hours for the Kharghar fire brigade to control the first that broke out at Kharghar Hill on Wednesday evening. No one was injured in the incident as the fire broke out in the grasslands and the nearest village is a kilometre away from the site.

An official from the Kharghar Fire station said that they had used three fire engines to douse the fire. “As there is no proper road to reach the fire site, we used fire beater tools,” said an official from the fire station. He added that the exact cause is not known but it seemed it was a mischievous act by anti-social elements.

As per the Kharghar Fire station, they received the fire call around 7.30 pm on Wednesday, and they ruse two fire engines and later sent one more. “The fire was brought under control around 2.30 am on Thursday,” said the official. He added that the fire fighting is very difficult on the hill as there is no proper road to reach the top and due to darkness, they had multiple challenges.

They informed that this kind of fire is every year routine. “Many people use the area of jogging and there are tribal villages on the hills,” said the official. Even anti-social elements and college students visit the area. But there is no check how a very year the fire breaks out in the same month. Even in February this year, there was a fire at Kharghar Hills.

According to residents, during the monsoon, the grass that grows dried in summer. “The dried grass catches fire easily and spread across the hill. Since the human population is very low, there is no casualty reported. But wild animals and reptiles might be killed,” said a resident of Kharghar.