Mumbai building blaze: 7 killed, over 62 injured

MUMBAI: Seven people, including two minors, were killed and more than 62 injured after a fire swept through a residential building in Mumbai’s Goregaon area in the early hours of Friday, a civic official said. Five of the injured are in critical condition.

Hours later, the city’s fire brigade chief said the building had no firefighting system.

As many as 30 residents were rescued from the terrace and various floors of the seven-storey structure, he said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde condoled the loss of life in the fire and announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of each of the deceased. The CM said that those injured in the fire would be treated at government expense.

The blaze started around 3 am at Jay Bhavani SRA building’ near Azad Maidan at Unnat Nagar in Goregaon West, said an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It had a lot of old clothes on the ground floor, they said.

A total of 68 residents were rushed to various hospitals. While 42 were admitted to the civic-run HBT Trauma Care hospital at Jogeshwari and 15 to BMC-run Cooper Hospital at Juhu, 11 were taken to three private hospitals, civic officials said.

Of these, seven including two minors and as many women died six at Trauma Care and one at Cooper. The condition of five others is critical. Nine took discharge against medical advice, they said. “The Jay Bhavani SRA building in Goregaon was old and no firefighting system was available there,” Ravindra Ambulgekar, chief fire officer of the Mumbai Fire Brigade said.

According to Sudhakar Pujarey, an officer bearer of the housing society, they have two wings a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) building and a saleable portion (sold in the open market). The fire erupted in the SRA building, he said.