A part of the building collapsed during fire-fighting operations in which three firemen sustained minor injuries. It took 16 hours to douse the fire.
A massive fire broke out in the Kothari Mansion, a building located in Fort area of South Mumbai, early on Saturday morning. The fire broke at around 4 am and was declared a level 4 — the highest fire call — at around 6 am.
A part of the building collapsed during fire-fighting operations in which three firemen sustained minor injuries. It took 16 hours to douse the fire.
The building, despite being a Grade II heritage structure, falls under the extremely dilapidated structures' list of the BMC. The building was vacated four years ago. The fire brigade said that the cause of the fire will be investigated but locals allege that fire is purposefully ignited with the landlords' selfish interests.
The Kothari Mansion is a ground-plus-five-storeyed residential and commercial building located near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and stands opposite to Government Post office. The structure is over a 100 years old and is a MHADA cessed property.
A senior MHADA officer, Dilip Garje, who was present on the site, said the MHADA last year had given an undertaking to the mansion's landlord, Nagraj Jain, for carrying repairs. The officer asserted that the building was not in dilapidated structures list of MHADA and was in repairable condition.
"The fire was doused around 6.30 pm. The building had wooden propping inside and it seemed that construction or repair work was going on. But as fire spread the wooden propping with the wooden staircase weakened and came down. The building was vacant when the fire broke. When our firemen reached the spot, the blazes had reached up to second floor. We will investigate the cause of fire," said Deputy Fire Officer, Rajendra Chaudhary.
However, locals say the fire broke around 3.15 am and called it a possible sabotage. Bharat Jadhav, Secretary of Patel Mansion adjacent to the Kothari Mansion, said, "It was around 3.30 that we saw flames coming out from fifth floor of the mansion, which further gutted the lower floors in an hour's time. If the building was vacant since four years, how can it suddenly in midnight catch fire."
Meanwhile, after the cooling operations are over, the MHADA will demolish the remaining part of the Kothari Building.
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 "Kothari mansion fire")
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