Fire at Kurla SRA bldg, 50 stranded people rescued | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: A fire broke out in a 12 storey Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) building in Kurla-west late on Friday. According to BMC’s disaster management unit, the fire was confined to electrical wiring and scrap material in the electrical duct, starting from the ground up to the 12th floor.
Over 50 people stranded on various floors were rescued by the fire brigade through the staircase. BMC said there were 43 residents who were affected due to suffocation, of which 39 were sent to Rajawadi Hospital and the others to Kohinoor Hospital. Twenty-nine have been admitted for treatment. Of the 29 admitted to hospital, 10 residents took discharge against medical advice while the condition others is stable.
Parshuram Kadam, a sixth-floor resident, said he sensed something amiss as the lights in his house started to flicker around 11.30pm. “I opened the door and saw flames coming out of the ducts. Me and my family members immediately rushed down. On the way, I knocked on everyone’s doors, alerting of a fire. We managed to escape before the severity of the blaze increased,” he said.
However, he pointed out that many residents tried to rush to the terrace which was locked. “They were stranded on higher floors and were suffocated due to the smoke. The fire brigade had to bring the stranded people down through the stairs,” he said.
In February this year, there was a fire in another SRA building on the same premises in which a 70-year-old woman died and two others were injured.
In the latest fire incident, the building did not have an operational fire-fighting system. Former corporator Harish Bhandirge said these locals are unable to maintain the fire-fighting systems that require periodic maintenance. “The fire suffocated the residents as it could not be put out quickly as the in-house fire-fighting systems were not functional,” Bhandirge said.
The blaze was extinguished after cutting off the electric supply of the building.