Around five to seven shanties belonging to a cluster of hutments were partially or fully destroyed around noon on Jarimari Road in Sevak Nagar, Kurla West, on Wednesday. Fortunately, no injuries occurred. Many locals believe that the fire had its origin in a lit diya in one of the homes.
The Mumbai Fire Brigade received an incident report at 12.15 pm and declared the fire to be a level 1 fire at 12.25 pm. Multiple agencies were mobilised to control the fire and tend to victims, including the staff of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai police and Adani Electricity; 108 ambulances were also pressed into service.
“The men were at work and the kids were at school when the fire broke out. It was only the women who were at home at the time. Luckily, they all ran out in the nick of time,” said Azeem Khan, whose shanty was one of those that was completely gutted. He added, “The floor is all that remains of some of the houses, owing to the intensity of the fire. We all thank god for not letting anyone get injured.”
“I was one of the first people to see the fire and come out running. Everyone was shocked initially, but we started getting water to douse the flames,” said Firoz Bhai, a local. Mouddin Khan, also known as Raja Bhai, whose home was half-destroyed in the blaze, said, “No one was trapped inside their homes. However, we have lost all our clothes, groceries, and possessions.”
“The lanes in our area are too narrow for fire trucks to enter easily. Once the blaze was noticed by everyone, we called the Mumbai Fire Brigade. Fire trucks from inside the airport tried to spray water onto the flames to extinguish them,” claimed Azeem Khan.
In the aftermath of the incident, the families whose homes were rendered uninhabitable put up tarpaulins to protect themselves from the rain. mid-day contacted the Mumbai Fire Brigade for a comment on how the fire started, but received no reply by press time.
