No casualty reported: Major fire guts warehouses at Kalachowki

Firefighters battle the blaze on Tuesday. Vignesh Krishnamoorthy

A major fire that broke out at Eastern Metal Company gutted several warehouses at Kalachowki on Tuesday afternoon. While the Mumbai Fire Brigade declared it as a level IV fire, no casualty was reported. As many as 16 fire tenders and 12 water tankers were deployed. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) disaster management unit (DMU) received the fire call at around 11.50 am. The first team of fire fighters reached at around 11.57 am and classified the fire as level III (major). However the fire spread rapidly following which within half an hour, the fire fighters declared it as level IV fire.

Hemant Parab (53), a fire fighter at the spot confirmed that first responders arrived at 11:57 am, labelling the fire as a Level 3 or major emergency. Eight fire engines and 6 water tankers were put into operation to fight the fire that was largely confined to the ground floor mezzanine. However, the fire had affected multiple warehouses nearby. “Agarbatti, oil, stock paper, besides metal were among the articles that were found inside. These articles lead to fire spreading quickly,” said Parab.

As the fire kept raging, the fire fighters called for additional fire engines and water tankers. There were a total of 16 fire engines and 12 water tankers. “Ambulances were mobilized too, but no casualties have been reported,” added Parab.

Residents of Sita Sadan building and another highrise building near the spot which was evacuated, claimed they had to wait for about 2-3 hours before the threat of fire ceased. “The firefighters went to the terrace of our building to control the fire. We believed it would harm us. Electricity in our building was disconnected as a preventive measure, we are awaiting for power to resume,” said Omakar Pawar (22) one of the residents.

It took over two hours for the MFB team to bring the fire under control and finally extinguish it. The cooling operations began after 2.40 pm. As of 5:15 pm, smoke continued to billow, but residents largely returned to their homes. “This is a result of our ‘cooling’ operation. We are currently extracting stock of incense to reduce the lingering smoke,” said Parab.

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