Kamala Mills fire: Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital gets tech that can douse blazes automatically

Officials from Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital said they spent Rs6.2lakh on 93 Elide fire extinguishers

Mumbai’s three largest medical colleges may soon get the latest fire extinguishing balls, which automatically explode with an extreme rise in room temperature. Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle, has become the first medical college in the state to procure the technology — Elide fire — that douse fires within 10 seconds.

The fireballs contain a dry powder that releases a special chemical to douse the fire faster than usual. (HT)

The decision was taken after the recent fire at Kamala Mills, which claimed 14 lives and left 55 injured.

P S Rahangdale, chief fire officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB), said the system is more sophisticated than that of traditional fire extinguishers, which are heavy to carry and slightly more complicated.

“A major advantage of the system is that it is automatic and explodes if the room temperature goes above 85 degrees Celsius. Being light weight, it can be thrown easily, which means the person trying to douse a fire can avoid injuries,” said Rahangdale.

The fireballs contain a dry powder that releases a special chemical to douse the fire faster than usual. As big as a football, and equally heavy, the personnel using it does not need special training.

Officials from the 700-bedded Cooper Hospital said they spent Rs6.2lakh on 93 Elide fire extinguishers so they can protect in-house patients and 5,000 people who visit the hospital’s out patients department daily.

“Considering the number of fires that have taken place across the city, it’s only natural to form an action plan to tackle emergencies,” said Dr Ganesh Shinde, dean, Cooper Hospital.