Many feared trapped in major fire in India's financial capital

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Many feared trapped in major fire in India’s financial capital Mumbai
Many feared trapped in major fire in India’s financial capital Mumbai

Smoke is seen coming out of a Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) building after a fire broke out, in Mumbai, India July 22, 2019.

MUMBAI: July 22, 2019 - A major fire broke out on Monday in a nine-story government building in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, with several people feared trapped, fire officials said.

Television channels said nearly 100 people may be trapped in the building that houses the office of state-owned telecoms company MTNL.

“The fire has been confined to the third and fourth floor of the building,” the fire department, which has dispatched 14 fire engines to the site, said in a text message.

An officer said 14 fire engines at the site are evacuating people using hydraulic platforms in the city's Bandra area.

Television images showed people breaking window panes and waving to fire officers to evacuate them. No casualties were immediately reported.

A woman rescued by fire services told the New Delhi Television news channel that 30 to 40 people were waiting to be evacuated from the building, with the third and fourth floors filled with smoke.

Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents.

 

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Five dozen rescued from building fire in India's financial capital

Smoke is seen coming out of a Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) building after a fire broke out, in Mumbai, India July 22, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Five dozen people were rescued from a nine-storey government building that caught fire on Monday in India's financial capital of Mumbai, authorities said.

“The rescue operation is nearly done. We are searching every floor of the building to find out whether anybody is left behind,” a fire department official said.

Fire broke out on the third and fourth floor of the building, which houses the office of state-owned telecoms company MTNL, prompting employees to go to the rooftop of the building.

The rescue was carried out by a team of 175 firemen and 14 fire engines. Municipal authorities initially estimated 100 people could have been trapped in the building.

 

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I had been to Mumbai many times, but living there is a horror for me. So much crowd every where including in the subway, very costly to live and hard even to get rental unless it is far away. In general, I don't like cities.

Mumbai: Cooling operations still underway at fire-hit MTNL building

A massive fire broke out in MTNL building in Mumbai's Bandra area at around 3 pm on Monday. All trapped people were rescued.

www.indiatoday.in

Over two dozen machines and equipment, including fire engines, special hydraulic ladders, jumbo water tankers, robofire (a robot), rescue van and breathing set vans, were used for the rescue operation that lasted for several hours, Rahangdale said.

"It was quite satisfying to see our personnel working so hard, beyond the call of duty, to save lives. Our men showed immense bravery and presence of mind while marching into the fire-hit building where the temperature was over 800 degree Celsius coupled with poisonous gases," he said.

"I am happy to see that everything went well during the rescue operation," the official said.

Asked why the robot deployed at the site did not perform as expected, he said it did a "satisfactory" job.

"The robot's job was quite satisfactory. Its handler did not get enough space to manoeuvre it," he added.

Monday's blaze was the latest in a series of fire incidents in the metropolis in the last few years.

There have been more than 49,000 fire incidents in Mumbai in the last decade, killing over 600 people, the Maharashtra government said in the Assembly in November 2018.

A massive fire in two pubs located in the Kamala Mills Compound here claimed 14 lives on December 29, 2017.

Besides, 12 people were killed in a blaze at a snack shop in Saki Naka-Kurla area on December 18, 2017.