Mumbai farsan mart fire: Visually impaired woman raises alarm, saves lives

Mumbai: A visually-impaired woman ended up saving a few lives when she alerted her son in the nick of time as a major fire broke out at a farsan shop in suburban Saki Naka-Kurla area in the wee hours of morning on Monday.

Twelve others, mostly workers sleeping in the shop located at Makaria Compound on the Khairani road, died in the blaze.

“We live in a room in the front side of the building (which also houses the farsan shop-cum-factory). My mother, who cannot see, heard loud noise between 3 and 4 am. She woke me up, thinking that some thieves have broken into the building,” said Tushar Pawar (27).

“We then rushed out and heard loud explosions. Realising that there was a fire, we raised alarm, and five or six people who live in the front side came out,” he said.

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“We tried to douse the flames by pouring water. But we soon realised it was beyond our control, so we immediately called fire brigade,” he said.

According to Pawar, since the fire broke out in the mid-section of the one-storey structure housing the farsan shop-cum-factory, those who were inside, mostly workers, could not come out.

Interestingly, Tushar and his brother Tejas, who had a house adjacent to the workshop and live along with their mother, survived. “My brother was at work and I was home with my old mother. The blast and smell of kerosene woke us up. We were lucky enough to run out of the houses before the fire engulfed the workshop along with our home,” said Tushar.

He added that he saw people, trying to escape but they couldn’t due to a glass door at the staircase. “In no time the entire structure went in flames along with our home. We have been living here since past two decades and the workshop has been here since then,” he added.