11 injured, 5 suffer severe burns after massive fire breaks out in Malad bldg
MUMBAI: 11 people were injured after they tried to escape using a staircase as a fire broke out in the ground floor meter cabin of a seven-storey building in Malad West on Tuesday.
The Girnar Galaxy building at Sundar Lane near Uncle’s Kitchen reported a fire confined to a meter cabin on the ground floor at 9.48am. At level zero, the Mumbai fire brigade called it a stop fire call and doused it with the help of only one fire tender by 9.54am.
Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner, P northward, said when the electric cabin on the ground floor caught fire, the smoke in the passage led to suffocation for many residents. “A ground floor senior citizen opened his door to check and see the fire and got injured with 50 % burns. Others were admitted to hospital for suffocation,” he added.
Dighavkar said prima facie the cause of the fire was due to a short circuit in the electric cabin and was extinguished in a few minutes by the fire brigade, but the smoke was a challenge to contain. Out of the 11 injured, five of them were taken to nearby Thunga Hospital from where one was shifted to
National Burns Centre, Airoli and the other to BMC’S Shatabdi Hospital.
“All three of them have 10-12 % burn injuries and are superficial. Our team of doctors, including plastic surgeons, has seen the patients. They are stable and under observation,” said Dr Hemal Barchha, medical administrator. Three from the Mukadam family, who live on the fourth floor, suffered extensive burn injuries. While Levina Mukadam, 73, with 32% burn injuries was transferred to National Burns Centre along with Anthony Fernandes, 68, with 23% burn injuries, her husband Marshal Mukadam, 80, sustained close to 60% burn and son - Philjoy Mukadam, 40, who suffered 30% burn was admitted in Shatabdi Hospital, Kandivali. Doctors said they were planning to shift both to NBC later. “Levina and Anthony have extensive burn injuries including long injuries because of smoke inhalation. We will be conducting bronchoscopy tomorrow to assess the extent of lung damage in both patients,” said Dr Sunil Keswani, medical director, NBC.
Ravindra Ambulgekar, chief fire officer said that usually when the meter room catches fire, all residents should stay put in their flats instead of trying to escape downstairs.
“The upper floor residents, trying to escape the fire, came down and suffered burn injuries. Getting out of their flats was a mistake,” he said.
Marissa Fernandes, 35, a ground-floor resident, with her two children inside her flat told HT there was smoke billowing from the meter room at the entrance. “
“There was a little smoke at 9.30am and within seconds it spread to the top floors from the meter room,” she said. “The entire meter room, whose wiring was done two years ago, is gutted,” she said.
Fernandes said a senior citizen couple residing in the neighbouring flat on the ground floor, luckily escaped as their younger son took them out of the window. “Except for a couple of elderly people, the rest have vacated and moved to their relatives’ homes in Malad due to disconnection of gas and electricity supply in the building,” she said.