Civic officials call the blaze an attempt to stall planned demolition of illegal shanties in the area
A fire broke out in a scrap godown in Mandale near Mankhurd area on Sunday afternoon. It took a few hours to bring the blaze under control and there were no casualties, said officials. While the cause of fire is still to be ascertained, civic officials suspect it to be a deliberate attempt as demolition is scheduled in the area, where many illegal shanties have come up.
The fire brigade was alerted about the incident around 2pm. Authorities pressed eight fire tankers in service and doused the fire by 6pm. According to fire brigade officials, the scrap godown had inflammable chemicals stored which may have helped the fire rage.
"The impact of fire was confined to stock of various scrap materials like oil drums, chemical drums and wooden planks. The fire is said to have started in 1,000x1,000 in about 20-22 galas used as scrap godowns," said a fire official.
However, a civil official, said, "The land where the godown is located belongs to collector and the collector's office by taking assistance of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials carry out demolition drives of which one drive is scheduled on Thursday which could be one of the reason behind fire wherein local slum dwellers would have deliberately ignited fire."
P S Rahangdale, chief of the Mumbai fire brigade, said, "The cause of fire is still under investigations."
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Bharat Marathe said, "The problem in that area is that there are number of illegal shanties that are used as godown to store scrap that includes inflammable chemicals or used oil that results in fire at times. A similar incident also took place in January 2017 after which demolition drive was also carried out."
In January 2017, two people were injured during fire wherein high quantity of chemicals were stored inside the illegal shanties spread around 20,000 square feet.
SIMILAR ANTICS
- In October 2017, a fire had broken out during demolition of illegal slums at Garib Nagar in Bandra
- Fire brigade and the civic officials had suspected that its was a ploy by the locals and not an accident
- The suspicion had arisen because the initial report had indicated that the fire was not due to a short circuit or gas leak.
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