4 rescued from fire at Khar building, 2nd incident in 7 months

Mumbai: Four persons were rescued from the terrace of Notan Villa residential building in Khar (west) after a level 2 fire broke out on the fourth floor of the building on Thursday. This was the second fire reported from this building in the past seven months.

In the blaze that erupted in September 2021, a 40-year-old woman, Hema Jagwani, lost her life after being suffocated while stranded on the top floor. After the September 2021 fire, the MFB officials found violations in the fire safety measures of the building. A notice was also sent saying the water and electricity connections will be disconnected if fire compliant measures are not followed.

Senior officials of the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) said that during Thursday’s rescue operation, they found that the fire prevention system in the building was entirely defunct.

“After last year’s fire incident we had issued them a notice citing several flaws in the existing fire prevention system. We had given them a timeline to repair the existing fire prevention system for safety measures, which they did later,” said Hemant Parab, Chief Fire Officer (CFO).

“However, during Thursday’s fire incident it was again revealed that the fire prevention system in the building was entirely non-functional due to which the blaze intensified. We will again send a notice after carrying out a thorough investigation of the premises,” said Parab.

According to MFB officials, Thursday’s fire was reported around 10:30 am following which eight fire engines and four jumbo water tankers were pressed into operation.

The MFB officials were able to douse the fire at 2:15 pm, after a four-hour-long operation. While no casualty was reported, the MFB officials had to rescue four persons trapped on the terrace of the building.

Saurabh Nirmal (27), Niraj Nathsingh (32), Sanket Surve (28) and Sanjay Yadav (32) were residents of the building.

“Four persons were trapped on the roof and due to intense smoke we couldn’t use the internal premises of the building, therefore we had to rescue them externally by using a snorkel ladder,” said an official.

The officials maintained that the fire might have been a result of a shock circuit, however, a concrete conclusion could be made only after the investigation.

Alka Kerkar, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator, who was present during the operation said, “In certain portions of the building redevelopment and maintenance works were being carried out, the shock circuit could have happened because of the electrical appliances that were inside.”