Five children, including a three-month-old boy, were among nine of a family who were charred to death in a fire that broke out in Andheri on Thursday morning.
The fire broke out inside Wafa Pharmacy in the Nigam Mestry chawl, Juhu lane, around 6 am. Only three members of the family – Mozin (58), and his two brothers, Imtiaz (32) and Nizam Khan (19), survived.
Upon hearing a minor blast-like sound in the morning, the three of them went to the ground floor to check. When they realised that there was a fire, the trio jumped to a neighboring house. From there, they alerted the rest of their family members and asked them to take the rear exit. However, the door got stuck, trapping all nine inside the house.
Though locals tried to break open the shop's shutter, the flames proved to be too strong. "As smoke started billowing from the shop, we alerted the emergency services," said Ghanshyam Yadav, a local resident. Preliminary investigations point to a short-circuit as the cause.
Three fire tenders took about an hour to douse the flames. Eight members of the family had perished by then. The fire brigade rushed Sofia (26), wife of Imtiaz, with more than 60 per cent burns to the Cooper Hospital. Though she was later shifted to the Kasturba Hospital, she was declared dead on arrival. Sofia's three children - Huzefa (8), Aliza (6) and Altamash (three-month-old) – also lost their lives.
The fire claimed the life of eight-month-old pregnant Rabin (28), whose two kids - Hani (8) and Tubba (5) – and husband Siddique (35) also lost their lives. Their mother-in-law, Sabunissa (55), was also charred to death.
"We have registered an FIR and have recorded statements of survivors and locals," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ashok Dudhe said.
There are more than 650 families in the locality and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) says most of the structures there were illegal. Civic officials said that the locality was identified for redevelopment.
Municipal officers said that the two-storey house of the Khans was developed without permission. "Most of the structures in this area are without legitimate development order. We are probing the property details of the house and will prepare a report soon," BMC assistant engineer (building and factory) TA Pawar said.
Meanwhile, locals claimed that the fire brigade took over an hour to reach the spot. "Even after they reached the scene, there were problems with water pipes and tenders. Had they arrived on time, some lives could have been saved," said local resident Shakir Mutsaq.
Fire brigade officials, however, said that the tenders, along with three teams, arrived within 20 minutes of the incident being reported.
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