A huge fire at Kamala Mills compound in Lower Parel, Mumbai, has killed 15 people.
Mumbai: Fifteen people including 12 women, most of them in their twenties and early thirties, were killed in a massive fire that started from a restaurant in Mumbai's Kamala Mills compound late on Wednesday evening, and spread rapidly to nearly restaurants and offices as well. Fire-fighters took more than three hours to douse the huge flames that leapt up in central Mumbai's nightlife hub. Initial reports indicate most of the casualties were reported from the vicinity of the restaurants that had opened in the 37-acre premises over the last few years. A police complaint has been registered against the restaurant '1 Above' where the fire broke out.
Here are the top 10 updates on Mumbai's Kamala Mills fire:
- The majority of those killed were women attending a birthday party at a rooftop restaurant, police said. The 28-year-old woman celebrating her birthday was among those who died, her grandfather told news agency Reuters.
- According to initial reports, the fire is suspected to have started at a restaurant, Mojo Bistro a little after 12.30 am on Thursday and spread quickly. Witnesses said the entire building was engulfed in flames in less than half-an-hour.
- The fire is suspected to have started a little after midnight from 1 Above, one of the many restaurants in the complex in Lower Parel.
- The fire department received a call about the blaze in a commercial building in the Kamala Mills compound in Central Mumbai around 12:30 am.
- Dr Sulbha KG Arora, a Mumbai doctor who said she was at the swanky restaurant when the fire broke out, said the fire started and "before we knew it the whole place was engulfed in a matter of seconds". "There was a stampede and someone pushed me. People were running over me even as the ceiling above me was collapsing in flames. Still don't know how I got out alive. Some powers were definitely protecting me," she said in tweets, calling the incident the "scariest thing I have ever survived".
- Several news channels also operate from the compound and had to shut down broadcast, reportedly due to damage to their equipment.
- S Jay Kumar, a senior Mumbai police officer said he could not speak on the cause of fire. "We have started our investigation... It is only after investigation that we will be able to say anything," he said.
- Shiv Sena lawmaker Sunil Shinde who also reached the hospital demanded a "proper inquiry". "Who has given them (restaurants) the licence? They are responsible for this incident," he told reporters.
- Aditya Thackeray, leader of the Shiv Sena, said he has spoken to the city's civic body commissioner. "Implementing fire audits of such places are a must, and action will be taken if violations are found," he tweeted.
- Once an industrial area in central Mumbai's Lower Parel locality, the 37-acre premises houses a host of swanky restaurants that had moved in over the last few years to make it a popular nightlife destination.
