Mumbai: A massive fire broke out at the Deonar dumping ground Thursday afternoon. The cause of the fire is still unknown, as stated by officials. As of now, no human casualty has been reported.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials stated it was a minor fire. However by 1.30pm, the smoke spread through other areas in the vicinity. Four JCBs and two fire brigades were rushed to the spot. “The fire was minor, but got escalated due to the wind and reached the slopes,” said a BMC official.
After 1.5 hours of persistent efforts, the flames were finally doused. Amid this, activists suspect that it was a case of deliberate fire. This has been the first fire incident at the Deonar dumping ground this year, which is infamous for major fire incidents in the last few years. “The city’s temperature was not even that high, and there was no hot weather during the day, that the waste would catch fire. It seems that it was a deliberate attempt by miscreants to clear the land,” said Stalin Dayanand, project director of Vanashakti.
Meanwhile, BMC officials claimed that the fire incidents had been reduced in this dumping ground. “You won’t see such a high frequency of such incidents since last year, as compared to how regular they were in 2015-17,” added the BMC official.
Earlier in 2016, a massive fire had erupted at the Deonar dumping ground, due to which a thick layer of smog had engulfed surrounding areas including Dadar for days, as shown in the satellite imagery by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). According to the BMC, 3500 metric tonnes of garbage is dumped every day at the Deonar dumping ground.
