The Juhu police on Friday arrested three accused in connection with the fire on the ground floor of an under-construction building in Juhu earlier this week. The death toll in the fire went up to seven on Friday.
The fire had broken out on the ground floor of Prarthana building near Kaifi Azmi park in Juhu on Wednesday night. The Juhu police went on to register a case of causing death and injury due to negligence on Thursday and initiated an investigation.
On Friday, the police arrested contractor Kiran Patel, site engineer Shiju John and site supervisor Prashant More. All three were questioned on Thursday and Friday about the safety measures undertaken at the site. They were placed under arrest at around 12.30 p.m. on Friday.
Senior Police Inspector Sunil Ghosalkar, Juhu police station, said, “According to our inquiries, the accused allowed the construction of temporary shelters on the ground floor for the workers and not in a separate area on the premises. They allowed workers to keep gas cylinders, creating fire hazards.” Mr. Ghosalkar added that no fire safety measures were found to have been undertaken at the site.
The accused were produced in court on Friday afternoon and were remanded in judicial custody. The police said that ideally, the residential shelters for labourers at construction sites are built away from the building. In the event of a fire, it is then easier to put out in an open space and there is lesser chance for fatalities.
“In a closed space like the ground floor of a building, other equipment used in the construction catches fire, causing the blaze to spread and increasing the fatalities and casualties,” said an officer with Juhu police.
Meanwhile, one of the four victims of the fire, who was critical, died in the early hours of Friday. The deceased was identified as Williams Imelu (34), the police said.
“The patient had over 70% deep burn injuries. Two other patients are critical and are on ventilator support,” said a doctor at Cooper Hospital, where 11 patients have been admitted for treatment.
The patients have been kept in surgical wards as the hospital does not have a dedicated burns unit.