Mumbai: Kitchen fire spreads in Wadala tower, doused

The Mumbai Fire Brigade doused a major fire that broke out in a multi-storeyed building in Wadala on Thursday afternoon. Fire officials, however, have decided to issue a show cause notice to the building authorities after the fire fighting system at the tower stopped functioning while they were trying to douse the fire.

According to officials, the fire broke out in a flat on the 17th floor of the 18-storeyed Mount Alps building at Bhakti Park near Imax Cinema around 3.26 pm. The fire was doused around 5.37 pm.

“The blaze was caused by a fire that broke out in the kitchen of a flat on the 17th floor. It later spread to adjoining flats and caused two cylinder blasts. No casualties were reported fortunately. We rescued 10 women and seven men from the 16th, 17th and 18th floor,” said a senior official, who was part of the operation.

The official added that the building was evacuated following the fire. “Even though electric wiring and other household materials were gutted in the fire, there was no structural damage to the building.”

Fire officials will inspect the fire fighting system installed in the building on Saturday. PS Rahangdale, deputy chief fire officer said, “The fire fighting system installed in the building was in working condition. We used it for almost 20 minutes but it stopped functioning after that. We will issue a show cause notice to the building.”

He added that they will decide on the future course of action after receiving a reply.