Two women died of suffocation after a fire spread through the 14-storey Imperial Heritage residential building in Nalasopara East, Palghar, late on Tuesday night, with fire brigade officials saying the building’s firefighting system was inoperative during the rescue operation.
The victims, identified as 65-year-old Ashwini Parkar and Falguni Shah, were staying on the 12th floor of the building’s B wing. The fire began in the meter room on the ground floor while residents were attending Garba festivities in the society and spread upwards through the building’s duct area.
Eyewitnesses said the fire broke out shortly after 11 pm on Tuesday. Fire brigade officials, however, said they received a call from residents at 12.11 am on Wednesday. The initial call reported a fire on the 11th floor, but officials found on arrival that the blaze had started in the ground-floor meter room and travelled upwards through the duct area.
A fire brigade official told The Indian Express that the duct ran parallel to the doors of the flats. Several doors had been decorated with flammable materials, including wooden and acrylic sheets, which officials said allowed the flames to spread quickly. The fire subsequently reached the 12th floor, where Parkar and Shah lost consciousness.
The two women were taken to a local hospital and declared dead. Officials said they had not suffered many burn injuries but had inhaled carbon monoxide after smoke filled the building. The deaths underline the danger posed by smoke inhalation in high-rise residential buildings, where residents may be unable to move through corridors or stairways once a fire spreads beyond its point of origin.
At least 28 people who were stranded inside the building were rescued from the terrace, according to fire brigade officials. Other residents managed to leave the building, while some were rescued through windows. A senior official said that the flames had reached several doors, making it more difficult for residents to escape.
The fire brigade of the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation said the building’s firefighting system was inoperative, a failure that effectively delayed both rescue and firefighting operations. The supplied report does not specify which components of the system were not functioning or when the system was last inspected.
Officials also said that the electrical supply for the Garba mandap and lighting was being additionally drawn from the meter room. This may have caused overloading, but the final cause of the fire has not yet been established, according to a fire brigade personnel quoted by The Indian Express.
The sequence described by officials points to multiple factors affecting the incident: the fire’s origin in a utility area, its upward movement through the duct, combustible material fixed to flat doors, an inoperative firefighting system and a delayed call to the fire brigade. The report does not establish whether any one of these factors alone caused the deaths or whether violations were recorded against the society or its occupants.
The building was hosting Garba festivities when the fire broke out, and many residents had stepped out of their homes to attend the event. The timing meant that some occupants were away from their flats, while others were inside a high-rise building as smoke and flames moved upwards from the ground floor. Fire brigade officials said residents used the terrace and windows while attempting to escape.
The incident also places attention on the safety of building service areas and vertical ducts. Although the fire started in the meter room, officials said the duct provided a route for the flames to travel towards the upper floors. The account indicates that the condition and design of common building areas can influence how quickly a localised fire becomes a threat to multiple floors.
For residents, the immediate impact included two deaths, evacuation from the building and the rescue of people who were unable to exit through the normal routes. The fire brigade’s initial account does not provide a final assessment of damage to the building, the number of residents treated after the rescue or the status of the firefighting system after the incident.
The final cause of the fire remains pending. Fire brigade officials have indicated that additional electrical loading from the festival installation could have played a role, but this remains an initial possibility rather than an established finding. Further inspection will be required to determine how the fire began, why it spread through the duct and why the building’s firefighting system was not operational when emergency crews arrived.
