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Seawoods fire: Duplex owner, society secretary booked
Three weeks after seven firemen were injured while dousing fire at a duplex in Sea Homes high-rise in Seawoods, the fire brigade has submitted a report against the
Three weeks after seven firemen were injured while dousing fire at a duplex in Sea Homes high-rise in Seawoods, the fire brigade has submitted a report against the apartment owner for keeping LPG cylinders, despite having a gas line connection. The cylinders, the report said, had led to multiple blasts in the apartment when the firemen were trying to douse the blaze.
The NRI Coastal police station has registered a case against the apartment owner, real estate developer Chandrakant Bhansali, and the society secretary, Ajay Gupta. “Based on the fire-brigade report, we have registered a case against the apartment owner and the society members responsible,” said an officer.
The fire brigade report said Bhansali’s 20th and 21st-floor duplex had a gas line connection, despite that, he had kept two LPG gas cylinders inside the flat. Bhansali, however, said he was not aware that a case has been registered against him. “We have two houses – one has the gas line and another has LPG cylinders. One stove is connected to LPG while another to the gas line. They should have recorded my statement before registering the FIR. This is harassment,” he said.
The society secretary Ajay Gupta and other members (who were not named in the FIR) were also booked for failing to get the fire NOC. “The last audit of the 21-storeyed high-rise was done in 2018, and they had not updated their fire-fighting system. The society has to get the fire audit completed every six months, after which we give them a no-objection certificate (NOC),” said Arun Bhoir, fire official at Nerul fire brigade.
However, Gupta alleged that the society had written to the fire brigade to get the audit done. However, fire officials said the communication for audits takes place through the headquarters and that they have not received any requests for audits.
