Woman rescued from window ledge after fire breaks out in Mumbai flat

MUMBAI: A 30-year-old woman was rescued after fire broke out in her fourth floor flat in a stilt+16-storied Ugam building near Pant Nagar police station, Ghatkopar East, at around 6.45am.
The fire originated from the AC unit and spread to electrical fittings in the hall of the flat. The woman was alone at her home as her mother had stepped out.
According to fire brigade officials, the woman realised that fire had broken out in the flat after smoke spread to the bedroom. The woman Kiran R panicked due to the smoke and got down to the ledge from the bedroom window.
"Our teams from Mankhurd were the first to reach there. While one team was engaged in dousing the fire, another team had raised ladders to the ledge to rescue the woman. We managed to extinguish the fire soon. Thereafter, Mankhurd senior station officer Santosh Bhosale and other firemen managed to pull her out from the window. Getting her inside the flat was a more practical option as we had doused the fire. Besides, getting her down from the ladder was risky," said Mumbai fire brigade ADFO Pritam Sawant.
"She was sitting precariously on the ledge, when we rescued her," Sawant added. By 8am, the fire was completely doused, and the operations were complete. "My mother had left for the temple at around 6am and I was sleeping. At around 7 am, I suddenly started feeling hot and woke up. Smoke was spreading into the bedroom, too. I initially thought that my mother was doing 'havan'. When I opened the bedroom door, I found it was completely dark and the room was filled with smoke from the fire. I realized that I could not stay there for more time, and I immediately jumped down to the ledge from the window," said Kiran Ravatka.
Ravatka gathered herself and called for help sitting on the ledge and people immediately gathered. "The fire system was dysfunctional as the mains at the ground floor were shut for whatever reasons. No fire alarm was raised by the system," Ravatka added.