Fire at south Mumbai mall extinguished after 56 hours; cooling operations on

The fire at City Centre Mall in south Mumbai’s Mumbai Central was extinguished at 5.08am on Sunday, more than 56 hours after it started, according to the Mumbai

The fire at City Centre Mall in south Mumbai’s Mumbai Central was extinguished at 5.08am on Sunday, more than 56 hours after it started, according to the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB).

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The fire was reported in a shop on the second floor of City Centre mall at 8.53pm on Thursday, as level 1 (small) fire. It soon spread to other floors and MFB declared it a brigade call — level 5 — at 2.42am. The mall is a ground-plus-three-storey structure with around 300 to 400 shops on each floor.

An official from MFB said, “Since there are many combustible items in many shops in the mall, such as mobile phone batteries, chargers and wires, cooling operations were underway on Sunday. But the fire was extinguished at 5.08am.”

On Saturday, a sixth fireman was hospitalised at BYL Nair Hospital due to suffocation while fire-fighting. Earlier on Friday, five firemen including a deputy fire officer were admitted due to suffocation.

After midnight on Friday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Mumbai Police evacuated around 3,500 residents living in the adjacent 55-storey Orchid Enclave due to thick smoke from the fire. On Saturday night, MFB gave a go ahead to these residents to begin moving back into their homes. However, MLA from Mumbadevi constituency, Amin Patel, said, “Residents were still scared and did not move in on Sunday. They will begin to move in on Monday morning.”