A fire at a 16,000-square-foot scrap godown in Mumbai’s Saki Naka area killed two people and injured four others on Tuesday evening after flames spread across 60 to 70 commercial units and chawls in a ground-floor and partly ground-plus-one structure, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s disaster cell.
The blaze broke out at around 6.30 pm and was brought under control at approximately 12.30 am, officials said. Two charred bodies were recovered from the site, but their identities had not been established at the time of the report.
The injured were identified as Taufiq Qureshi, 20, Jahid Qureshi, 20, Kamal Shah, 47, and Lalchand Gautam, 40. Taufiq suffered burns over 80 per cent of his body, while Jahid and Kamal sustained 40 per cent burns each. Lalchand suffered 10 per cent burns. The injured men were undergoing treatment at Rajawadi Hospital, BMC officials said.
According to an official cited by The Indian Express, locals rescued the victims before the fire brigade reached the spot. The victims were taken to hospitals in private vehicles. The bodies of the two deceased people were sent for postmortem examinations.
The affected premises contained a range of combustible and hazardous materials, including electrical installations, garment stocks, plastic granules, scrap material, wooden furniture, empty aerosol containers, LPG cylinders and various types of machinery. These materials were spread across the commercial units within the structure, officials said.
The fire also affected adjoining chawls located within or alongside the commercial premises. The extent of damage to individual units and the condition of the structure were not detailed in the report. The BMC and other authorities were assessing the cause of the fire, which had not been determined.
The incident brought emergency services to a densely occupied mixed-use pocket of Andheri East, where commercial storage and residential accommodation were located in close proximity. The concentration of scrap, plastics, cylinders, machinery and other materials inside the premises complicated the response and contributed to the scale of the affected area, according to the details provided by officials.
Authorities had not announced a final cause or any further action against the premises at the time of publication. The next steps include identifying the deceased, completing postmortem procedures, continuing treatment of the injured and determining how the fire began.
