4 years after Gokul Niwas fire, ground reality remains same

Old wooden structure, houses converted into storage units for combustible material, old electrical wiring and narrow access lanes – four years after the blaze at Gokul Niwas in Kalbadevi, which led to several inspection drives and a report with recommendations to prevent such incidents, the fire brigade faced the same old challenges while dousing the blaze at China Building in Kamathipura on Monday.

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The sequence of events at China Building was eerily similar to Gokul Niwas, which is barely two km away. The four-storey century-old residential building in Kalbadevi was partially converted into a storage unit illegally and had inflammable and combustible material such as cloth and chemicals stored in bulk, similar to China Building. The electrical system of the building was outdated, and fire safety measures were missing from the building. The area had narrow lanes and the building collapsed during firefighting. Top four fire officers, including then chief fire officer (CFO) Sunil Nesrikar, were killed in the blaze in 2015.

After the incident, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had shut down illegal storage units in at least 20 residential buildings. Subsequently, the drive was stopped. The inquiry report had then recommended banning warehousing in residential structures, made it legally binding to conduct annual electricity audits, regular inspections to prevent misuse of residential spaces, and banning parking on narrow roads in these areas. Most of these recommendations, however, remained just on paper.

A senior fire brigade officer who was part of the rescue operations at China Building said, “The fire aggravated quickly owing to stored material such as cloth, sanitary pads and leather. For the first few minutes, the fire brigade found it difficult to access the building because of the narrow road and adjoining buildings.”

Prashant Gaikwad, assistant commissioner, D ward, said, “At least 20% of the residential buildings in this area are also used as godowns without BMC’s permissions. We will now have to undertake an inspection drive in Kamathipura to curb such illegalities.”

Last week, the BMC inspected buildings on Lamington road, and found two out of every 10 buildings had illegal storage units. “We will check on Tuesday if Kamathipura’s China Building had permissions to have godowns and store material,” said Gaikwad.