Fire brigade issues notice to Vile Parle building for non-functional fire fighting system

MUMBAI: Two days after a fire gutted an 11th-floor apartment in Vile Parle, killing two-year-old Abir Vatavia and his 23-year-old nanny Ankita Chetri, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has issued a notice to the building society, Shanta Bhuvan CHS, for keeping its firefighting system in manual mode

MUMBAI: Two days after a fire gutted an 11th-floor apartment in Vile Parle, killing two-year-old Abir Vatavia and his 23-year-old nanny Ankita Chetri, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has issued a notice to the building society, Shanta Bhuvan CHS, for keeping its firefighting system in manual mode.

The fire brigade said the building residents had switched the firefighting equipment from auto mode to manual mode, rendering the system ineffective during the emergency. “A J-form notice has been issued asking them to get the fire apparatus into functional mode again and ensure fire compliances,” said Prakash Sakpal, assistant divisional fire officer.

Abir and Ankita died, possibly due to suffocation, after the fire broke out at around 10pm on Tuesday at the family’s 11th-floor apartment in Vile Parle.

Meanwhile, the Fire Brigade has not yet been able to establish the cause of the fire as family members have still not been in a position to speak to officials. “I visited the building today but grandfather Hiren Vatavia, who is the prime eyewitness, is still not in a position to talk to us. I will be visiting him again tomorrow,” Sakpal said.

Shanti Bhuvan on Baptista Road also continues to remain without electricity and water connections following the blaze. Sakpal said the electrical installations throughout the building were being inspected by licensed private electrical contractors after water entered the apartments and electrical systems during firefighting operations.

“The electrical connections of the entire building are being checked by licensed private electrical contractors since water had entered all rooms and even the electrical installations during the fire extinguishing process. The electricity will not be restored until all electrical connections are checked for fire safety,” he said.

The building’s lift also remains non-functional, with personnel from Schindler checking the system. Meanwhile, Ankita’s body remained unclaimed for 39 hours after her death, delaying the post-mortem as authorities awaited a family member to formally claim it.

A doctor from Dr R N Cooper Hospital, where the post-mortem was conducted, explained that the procedure could not begin until a family member came forward to claim the body. “We cannot start the post-mortem unless a family member comes forward to claim the body. In this particular case, since her immediate family members could not come, her blood relatives had come forward to claim along with a NOC from her mother, which was attested by a government authority,” the doctor said.

Ankita’s mami, or her maternal uncle’s wife, Kamala Karkhi, who works at a house in Juhu, came forward at around 5.30pm on Thursday to claim her body. Speaking to HT, Karkhi said she was originally from Nepal, while Ankita’s family is based in Siliguri, near Malbazar. Ankita, she said, was the only earning member supporting her family. “Both her brothers, one elder and one younger, are currently unemployed while her parents are not working. She had come to Mumbai a few months back,” Karkhi said. Social activist Rajesh Mehta said the Vatavia family had assured financial support to Ankita’s family.