Fire breaks out at SoBo building, none hurt

Mumbai: Yet again, the issue of vehicles parked on roads delaying firefighting operations has come to the fore. A private building at Breach Candy caught fire midnight of Wednesday, which was declared as a major fire. The blaze escalated even as firefighting was delayed as the fire engines took time to reach the spot due to vehicles parked on the road. “The building was on the main road only, but the vehicles obstructed the fire engines. We had to search the owners while some vehicles were removed by a towing van which delayed the firefighting operations,” said deputy chief fire officer R. Chaudhary.

However, no one was injured in the incident. Dharam Villa, which caught fire, is a nine-storeyed private property on Bhulabhai Desai Road. Only one family with seven to eight members occupied the building; it was evacuated.

“Each floor of the building was used for different purposes and was very well furnished with wood. The wooden staircase caused the fire to spread to the top very fast,” said the fire officer. The fire started from the fourth floor at 12.36 am and spread to the last floor. It was declared as a major fire at 1.16 am. It took five hours for firemen to douse the fire.

The inbuilt firefighting system of the building was not working and the owner of the building was served notice under the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act.

This is the second incident in recent time where vehicles parked on the road delayed firefighting operations.

Similar such incident was reported on December 27, 2018, at Tilak Nagar, Chembur. The 11th floor of Sargam Society caught fire wherein five residents died. The fire engines took time to reach the spot due to unauthorised parking of vehicles on the road.