Fire rages on, stoking sabotage fears

The major fire that broke out at the Deonar dumping ground on Thursday had still not been completely doused by Saturday night. — Shripad Naik

Fire at Deonar dumping ground still not fully doused, CM orders probe into possible foul play. It took a call from chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to press the full might of its machinery into operation on Saturday to control the fire that has been raging for a couple of days at Deonar dumping ground. However, despite the efforts, the flames were still seen blazing at the dump site late in the night. The CM has also directed to probe possibility of sabotage in the fire.

Civic officials had claimed that the fire, which had broken out at the Deonar dumping ground on Thursday, was brought under control by Friday evening.

However, it again erupted early on Saturday, due to which a thick blanket of smog engulfed several parts of Mumbai in the morning. It reached as far as South Mumbai, following which the chief minister took notice of it and asked the civic chief Ajoy Mehta to take all necessary measures to control the fire.

Following this, the BMC administration finally started fire control operations on a war footing. The Mumbai Fire Brigade deployed 14 fire tenders, two mini water tenders (water mist), eight water tankers, three ambulances, breathing apparatus van and other necessary equipments to control the fire.

In addition to this, 150 litres of ‘Jet Cool Solution’ was also dispatched to be used with the help of mini water tenders.

Senior civic officials, who had not visited the dumpsite earlier, reached the spot to monitor the situation.

“The fire has taken place on a huge area of about 25 hectares of dumping ground. At some of the places, flames are again flaring up where they were doused. Though the fire is under control, the smoke is spreading due to moderate wind.

The operations will continue during night also. We have prohibited rag pickers from entering the dumping ground,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of the M-East ward.

According to the civic officials, five to six people were seen on Thursday night stoking the fire again.

A complaint has been registered against unknown people at the Shivaji Nagar police station in this matter. Fire officials said that the fire would be brought under control by Sunday.

Mr Fadnavis has also asked the police to probe into possibility of sabotage in the Deonar dumping ground fire.

City BJP chief Ashish Shelar has demanded an inquiry into the environmental impacts of the fire. “There should also be an inquiry into how the fire took place and why it took so munch time to douse it,” said Mr Shelar.