Mumbai Kamala Mills fire LIVE UPDATES: CM orders extensive inquiry, BMC suspends five officials

The fire led to the death of 14 people while 59 others were injured.

Atleast 14 people including 11 women died and 54 others were injured in a midnight blaze in a pub in Mumbai’s Kamala Mills in the early hours of Friday.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered an inquiry into the incident, while five municipal officials were suspended as it emerged that the restaurant-pub One Above at the Trade House Building in the tony Kamala Mills Compound had been served notices in the past by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for alleged violations and even prosecuted for unauthorised construction and alterations. The Assistant Municipal Commissioner of G-South Ward was transferred for lapses and negligence in allowing the eateries to operate there.

The One Above pub which was charred in the fire had been a continuous flounder. Kamala Mills is one of the commercial hubs of the financial capital and houses numerous eateries, restaurants, commercial outlets and prominent national media organisations.

Here are the LIVE UPDATES: 

8:17 am: The municipal corporation must be held to account. Criminal neglect must not be allowed to lead to another Kamala Mills, writes Kiran Nagarkar.

8:12 am: Political blame game began hours after the Kamala Mills tragedy, as BJP and Shiv Sena MPs exchanged garbs in the Parliament. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is ruled by the Shiv Sena, while BJP is the ruling party in the state government.

8:08 am: Here are some pictures from the lens of the Indian Express photographers capturing the sorrow of the tragedy and the bravery of the first responders left in the aftermath of the Kamala Mills Fire.

8:03 am: Khushbu Bhansali, from Sanchore village in Rajasthan, was bringing in her birthday with cousins and friends when the fire broke out in the 1Above pub and restaurant. Hours after they retrieved the bodies of Khushbu and her relative Kinjal from the washroom of the eatery. Read Here

7:58 am: Records of the civic body show that 1Above was issued a licence on December 19, 2016, in the name of licensee Kripesh Sanghavi. The licence was to expire on December 17. But it was renewed by the civic body and is now valid up to December 18, 2018.