Fire-fighting system at City Centre Mall was non-functional: Mumbai Fire Brigade
Two weeks after a level-five fire was reported in south Mumbai’s City Centre Mall, the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) on Friday said that the fire-fighting system at the mall was non-functional, and appropriate action will be taken against those found guilty. However, MFB is yet to confirm the cause of the fire as investigations are ongoing.
“During firefighting at City Centre Mall [in Mumbai Central], it was observed that the fire-fighting system was non-functional. In this regard, appropriate action is under process against the licence agency,” MFB said in its response to questions raised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee.
“After inspection by the compliance team of the BMC, a notice was issued by us in October 2019, and the mall management had submitted its compliance reply in November 2019,” the MFB added.
The fire brigade mentioned that while its investigation into the fire incident is ongoing, the BMC is also undertaking a probe to ascertain how many shops inside the mall were illegal, if any.
A spokesperson for City Centre Mall did not comment on the MFB’s reply.
MFB stated that post the Kamala Mills fire in December 2018, all malls and large establishments in the city are inspected, and compliance notices are sent to them from time to time.
On October 22, a level-one fire was reported in a shop on the second floor of the mall at 8.53pm. It soon spread to other floors and the fire brigade declared it a level-five blaze – a rare event in which the chief fire officer is required to be present – at 2.42am. Overall, five fire officers, including a deputy fire officer, were injured while fire-fighting. MFB had used 203 fire tankers for freighting at the spot with more than 250 firefighters.
Rais Shaikh, Samajwadi Party corporator and standing committee member, said, “I had complained about the unsafe condition at the mall around one year ago but despite this, the incident took place. I am demanding that a criminal investigation department (CID) inquiry be undertaken into the matter.”
Javed Juneja, Congress corporator and a standing committee member, said, “The fire-fighting system didn’t function, and the MFB has said they had inspected the mall last year. If there was an inspection, and compliance was proper, why was the fire-fighting system non-functional?”