Blaze damages court’s rooftop, documents safe

Mumbai: A fire broke out in the City Civil and Sessions Court near the Fort campus of the University of Mumbai on Monday. While the rooftop of one of the courtrooms was damaged in the fire, there were no injuries or casualties.

According to fire officials, the fire erupted at about 7 am. However, since it was early morning, there were not much people and later even the court operations in the day went on without any disturbance.

The fire started from courtroom number 34 on the third floor of the building and fortunately, did not spread to the other parts. Four fire engines and water tankers along with an ambulance were immediately rushed to the spot to bring fire under control.

Once the fire was brought under control, the cooling and cleaning operations were undertaken. However, it did not affect the court operations, only the proceedings at courtroom number 34 had to be shifted to courtroom 15.

Fire officials said prima facie the cause of the fire appears to be the ongoing welding work being done by the Public Works Department (PWD) department.

“The work was being done early morning so that court operations would not be affected,” said an official.

Court staffers said that the fire affected no important documents. “As it was not a very major fire, the court was functioning like any other day. By early evening the courtroom had been cleaned as well,” said an employee.