13 suffer from suffocation after fire erupts in Ghatkopar building; 90 rescued

Mumbai: Thirteen persons suffered suffocation and around 90 residents were rescued after a fire broke out on the ground floor of a seven-storey SRA building in Ghatkopar East in the early hours of Saturday.
The blaze erupted at 1:30am in the D-wing of Shanti Sagar Police Cooperative Housing Society, located in Ramabai Colony, trapping residents in thick smoke.
“The fire broke out in the electric metre room on the ground floor. It remained confined to the wiring and other installations there. Due to the fire, smoke engulfed the entire building,” a fire brigade officer said.
The officer in charge said that the preliminary cause of the fire was a short circuit.
An eyewitness told HT that panic prevailed in the building when the residents on the ground floor raised an alarm of the fire as smoke started flooding into their homes from the passages, which is also the only entrance and exit way for the building. Between 80 to 90 persons were on the different floors, stranded, unable to make their way out due to the choking smoke. The rest ran up to the terrace. Although a colony for police personnel, the wing was given to ordinary citizens on rent. The fire was extinguished by 2:06am.
Thirteen people suffered suffocation and were taken to the nearby Rajawadi Hospital, out of which one was treated on an OPD basis. With their condition stable, seven were discharged against medical advice. Five are still admitted, their conditions stable, said an officer.
“Every household has a senior citizen and children here. Fortunately, nobody fell or got injured in the chaos when everyone started rushing towards the terrace because our main entrance was caught in fire. The senior citizens also struggled but somehow managed to climb the stairs till the seventh floor and to the terrace,” said Lakshmi Loke, a resident of the building.
“We first asked the residents to run towards the terrace, because the ground floor outlet has the metre box on both sides and there was no way,” said the fire officer. “When the smoke reduced a bit, we rescued the few remaining residents in their homes through an external ladder. The rest we got down through the building staircase after the fire was extinguished. In total, 80-90 were rescued.”
Chandan Nikalje, secretary of the Ramabai Ambedkar Magasvargiya Gruhanirman Sanstha, has his office on the ground floor of the same building. He and the members of the Sanstha who are the neighbouring buildings’ residents helped a few of the residents escape the fire and smoke during the incident before the fire brigade arrived.
“I represent these people. Yesterday when the incident happened, I was right here at the Ganesh Pandal. I heard people shouting and there was smoke coming out of the building. I called the youth of my Samstha and around 100-150 turned for help until the fire brigade arrived.” He added.
The residents claimed that the building had no proper facilities. There is no lift installed, no fire exits built and no proper ventilation for when such an incident happens, making senior citizens and children vulnerable. “The children were vomiting due to the smoke until they reached the terrace of the building,” said one, shaken.
The residents claimed that few of them resisted getting admitted to the hospital in fear. They wanted to return back and see what had happened to their homes. Having not slept the whole night after the incident, they now faced a lack of water and electricity in the building.
“We have had a discussion with the society secretary, Ramchandra Sonavle. As soon as he approves and takes care of the expense of new meters, the new electric meters will be installed. But for now, we have requested for a temporary solution for the residents to receive electricity, because if there is no electricity then there is no water,” said Nikalje.
The residents have claimed that the building is an SRA building and the status of the building is not taken care of by anyone.
“The incident took place last night at 1 am. No authority has asked us about what has happened. If the fire brigade came even a little late, for sure there would have been 100-200 dead bodies,” said the residents.
Despite repeated attempts, Mahendra Kalyankar, CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority was unavailable for comment till the time of going to the press.