Cooling operations are still underway nearly 36 hours after a major fire erupted at a mall in the Bhandup area here, which claimed the lives of nine patients in a hospital located there, fire brigade officials said on Saturday.
The fire had broken out at the Dreams Mall building in the Bhandup area around shortly after Thursday midnight. It had erupted in a shop and spread to the Sunrise Hospital, located on the top floor of the four-storeyed mall building.
Nine patients undergoing treatment at the hospital, a COVID-19 designated facility, died due to suffocation as a result of the fire, while two other patients at the hospital had already died due to coronavirus before the fire broke out, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had said.
A fire brigade official said, "The cooling operations are still on. It was a 'level four' fire (serious emergency call) when it broke out. It has been brought under control." Several fire engines, water tankers, ambulances and a number of firefighters are present at the spot, he added.
The patients rescued from the hospital were shifted to different facilities, including a jumbo COVID hospital in Mulund, and hospitals in Bhandup, Thane, Ghatkopar, another official said.
Altogether 78 patients were being treated at the 107- bed hospital when the fire broke out, the BMC had said, adding that 67 patients were shifted to other hospitals after the blaze.
Meanwhile, a civic official said that BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has ordered an inquiry into the fire incident and asked the authorities to submit a report soon.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had visited the spot on Friday afternoon and said that strict action would be taken against those found responsible for the fire.
