Mumbai Fire Brigade to serve notice to Khar building over defunct firefighting system

The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) has found violations of fire safety measures in Nutan Villa building in Khar, where a medium fire occurred on Thursday evening killing one woman. MFB will send a notice to the building owner and cut off electricity and water supply.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) has found violations of fire safety measures in Nutan Villa building in Khar, where a medium fire occurred on Thursday evening killing one woman. MFB will send a notice to the building owner and cut off electricity and water supply, fire brigade authorities said on Friday.

Mumbai Fire Brigade found that the firefighting system of the Khar building was not working. (HT FILE)

The fire occurred in an electric duct on the first floor and spread to the ground floor of the building. However, as the duct connected all eight floors of the building, the entire building was smoked logged during firefighting. The fire brigade found the building’s firefighting system was not operational.

A medium intensity (level-2) fire was reported in the residential building in Khar (West) at 6.58pm on Thursday, trapping three residents including a 10-year-old on the seventh floor. Among those who were trapped, Hema Jagwani, 40, was rescued and moved to Hinduja Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival by doctors. Sangita Thakur, 45, and Palak Jagwani, 10, were rescued by MFB using turn table ladders.

A senior MFB official said, “While all three women were trapped on the seventh floor, two of them (Palak and Thakur) moved toward a window of the room, hence the fire brigade was able to rescue them from the outside. However, the deceased (Hema) was in an external room with access to the lobby where she got stuck while trying to take the staircase to exit the building. If she had also moved toward a window, we would have been able to rescue her.”

The fire was doused after about four hours of firefighting at 11.08pm on Thursday.