“Municipal commissioner has visited the spot and has given instructions to provide immediate relief to all the affected families.”
Mumbai : A massive fire broke in a slum area in Kandivali East on Monday, killing two people including a child and injuring at least 11. The mishap took place in Damu Nagar slum at Akurli Road at 12.30 pm. The injured were rushed to to Shatabdi hospital in Kandivli.
The cause of fire was reportedly a cylinder blast in a godown, which caused a series of cylinder explosions. The Damu Nagar slum area is said to house godowns of various items.
“We received the first call at 12.33 pm and second call at 12.51 pm. Soon, 13 fire engines and seven water tankers were reached the spot. Eleven ambulances and an emergency medical services (EMS) van were also sent,” the fire control room informed. “The fire spread over a perimeter of 500-1,000 sq metres.”
“In the massive fire, more than 2,000 huts have been destroyed. The fire engulfed various ground-level and two-floored hutments, household articles, furniture, clothes and kerosene in houses and shops,” said chief fire official PS Rahangdale.
HV Hivrale, deputy chief fire officer, said: “After the first blast, all the slum dwellers started running out of their houses. Within minutes, there were around 20 cylinder explosions, creating huge panic among the people. More than 2,000 families lost their houses. The blaze was spreading very fast leaving no time for people to save anything from their houses.”
“It was a very difficult task for us to douse the massive fire due to congestion in roads in the area. We had to break the wall of Nalanda Vihar to pass our water pipes. This took us a long time and caused delay in bringing the fire under control,” he said.
“We are still investigating the exact place where the first blast occurred which led to a series of 15 to 20 cylinder blasts. We will continue our investigation on Tuesday as the slum dwellers are still in panic as they have suffered huge losses,” added Hivrale.
Dr Pimpale, Medical Superintendent at Shatabdi Hospital, said: “Two people were brought dead with 100% burns out of which one was a girl child. A total of 11 people are injured including six women, of whom two have 40% and 42% burns. Currently, five victims with major burns have been admitted to the hospital and six have been discharged.”
Ram Dotonde, head of BMC public relations, said: “Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta has visited the spot and has given instructions to DMC Zone VII, Ashok Khaire, and assistant commissioner of R-South to provide immediate relief to all the affected families.”
“For around 2,000 people who are affected due to fire, BMC with the help of local NGOs and Mahindra and Mahindra has made arrangements of night shelter, food packets, drinking water, toilet blocks, fogging, lighting arrangements and medical help,” he said.
“The arrangements are made available at two places viz. BEST plot and Vilasrao Deshmukh Park in Kandivali. night shelter has been made available at three municipal schools,” he added.
