Another incident of fire negligence was seen in a residential building, Crystal Tower, in Parel where a major fire broke out costing 4 lives including that of one woman resident on Wednesday. The incident, reportedly, took place at around 8.25 in the morning on the 12th floor of the 17-storeyed building. As many as 20 fire tenders rushed to the spot to douse off the fire. The fire brigade official explained the incident to the media at the spot and called the likely cause of the fire to be the electrical short circuit inside one of the flats on the 12th floor.
#UPDATE: The Level-2 fire that broke out in Crystal Tower near Hindmata Cinema in Parel area now becomes Level-3 fire. Ten fire fighting tenders have rushed to the spot. People trapped inside the tower are being rescued using a crane. Rescue operation is underway. #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/stUgBaQQzX
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2018
#UPDATE: 20 fire tenders rushed to Crystal Tower near Hindmata Cinema in Parel where fire broke out on 12th floor of the tower. No casualties reported till now. People trapped inside being rescued using cranes.Some people taken to hospital after rescue.Rescue operation on.#Mumbai pic.twitter.com/VDLuYdDIqE
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2018
“The fire was confined to the electric wiring in the duct from the 12th to the 16th floors. The lift and the common lobbies were filled with smoke. Due to the tremendous heat and smoke, all occupants of the upper floors were trapped,” explained Prabhat Rahangdale, CFO (Chief Fire Officer), quoted Mumbai Mirror. Two of the fire brigade officials sustained minor injuries, the report claims.
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#UPDATE: Total four people have died in the fire accident that broke out in Crystal Tower near Hindmata Cinema in Parel area earlier today. Identification of two bodies is still to be done. #Mumbai
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2018
The bodies of the 4 victims got charred very badly to be identified, to the extent that it was hard to identify the gender of the bodies. The victims were later identified as 62-year old Shubhada Shirke, 37 year old Hasan Shajahan Shaikh, 45 year old Ashok Sampath and 52 year old Sajeev Nair. A source has disclosed that 2 bodies were found inside the lift. Around 35 were rescued and the injured were rushed to the nearby civic-run KEM Hospital. 7 of the residents were rescued from the 12th and the 13th floor using a turn table ladder. A snorkel ladder and cranes were also deployed to rescue those trapped on various floors of the building.
The rescue operation ran for over 4 hours and the fire was later taken control on. A preliminary visit in the building showed fire negligence by the society as the firefighting system was found unoperational. The building was declared unsafe by the fire brigade and they, subsequently, registered a case against the builder, M/s Sopariwala. The water and electric connection have been cut off and by evening, the developer, Abdul Razzak, was arrested by the Bhoiwada police and an FIR was registered in the case.
Parel Fire Case: Developer of Crystal Tower Abdul Razak Ismail Sopariwala sent to police custody till 27th August by Bhoiwada Court. A fire had broken out in the Tower yesterday. #Mumbai
— ANI (@ANI) August 23, 2018
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The building was a result of redevelopment of a 4-storeyed Supariwala Mansion, which came down in 2006, source claimed. The Supariwala Mansion was a 60 year old building which was later renamed as Crystal Tower and occupied 58 flats in total, 17 floors this time. This incident has made the Mumbaiates recall the tragic fire incident in December 2017 when a rooftop pub ‘1Above Pub’ in Kamala Mills got engulfed in fire, leaving 14 dead and 54 people injured. The pub was operational with lot of fire safety negligence and got a nationwide uproar over BMC’s inaction against such pubs and restaurants. BMC, subsequently, acted against a lot of illegal restaurants and pubs which were found not fit or illegal.
(With inputs from ANI, Mumbai Mirror & HT)
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